The Missing Hokage
by Jonque
Summary: My answer to Perfect Lionheart's Missing Hokage challenge. A different take on the usual Naruto-is-kicked-out plot line, in which Tsunade refuses to let her reason for returning get thrown out without fighting back.
1. Complicating Matters

The Missing Hokage

**The Missing Hokage**

**01: Complicating Matters**

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Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Any ideas or characters you do not recognize from the anime or manga, unless stated otherwise, are probably mine. This disclaimer applies to all chapters and shall not be repeated.

**Author's Preface:** Firstly, this story is done in answer to a challenge posted by Perfect Lionheart (author profile: 1318171). In accordance with his challenge, this story will follow a general outline that he has set for things he would like to see happen under this scenario. If you haven't heard of him, look up his story _Chunin Exam Day_, which you should probably do anyway seeing as this story will be borrowing bits and pieces from that. While it would be helpful to have some background information on where some things come from, it will not be necessary in order to read this. And finally, as a few of my past readers know, I have a bad habit of starting something and either not finishing or taking forever to update (sorry Ken, this is distracting me from BiBtH for a while). This is for several reasons: I'm lazy, I lack motivation most days, I am easily distracted by anything new and shiny, and I love reading. Do not pester me for updates, it won't help. Creative criticism is always welcome but idiocy will be ignored. And now that I've bloated the word count enough with author's notes and wasted a minute or two of your life, I'll let you get on to what you came here for.

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"You want me to what?" Tsunade asked calmly, discreetly pinching herself to make sure that she hadn't fallen asleep in a sake-and-paperwork induced stupor on her desk again. The mild bit of pain she received told her that she was not dreaming, though it did not rule out the possibility of hallucination. That had to be the explanation. There was no other way to explain her current situation—especially since she'd already checked for genjutsu twice.

Tsunade's day had started out much the same as nearly every other day since her return to Konoha and subsequent sentencing—no, appointment—to the position of Hokage. The blond Sannin had woken early that morning to Shizune shaking her awake, after showering and dressing she had eaten a small breakfast and made her way to the office (she still could not think of it as _her_ office), and she had looked over the morning paperwork with Shizune before going down to the mission assignment office. It was there that her day had taken a deviation from the norm when a messenger informed her that her presence was required in the council's meeting chamber. It was there that whatever hopes she'd had that today would be simply another day of dull drum while waiting for Naruto to return and brighten up her miserable life were dashed to bits.

Homura interrupted her thoughts, repeating what his once-teammate Koharu had proposed to their Hokage. "We wish for your support in removing Uzumaki Naruto from Konoha's shinobi force. We are aware of your... affection for the boy, and so out of respect for our new Hokage we will not pursue his execution. However, we want him exiled from Konoha, never to return unless called upon by this council or the Hokage."

Tsunade nodded slowly, as though contemplating the older man's words. In reality, her mind was working furiously towards finding a way out of this situation, for herself and for Naruto. "Why should I go along with this proposal? Due to the Oto/Suna invasion and our continued 'housecleaning' in an attempt to weed out more double agents like Kabuto, our shinobi forces have been depleted to an all-time low. We've been forced to reactivate many retired shinobi to compensate for this loss. We can not stand to lose even one capable shinobi, especially one who has the potential to surpass even Yondaime," Tsunade argued, attempting to buy time. Beside her, Shizune leaned over and whispered a word into her ear. "And let us not forget Akatsuki. Exiling Naruto would remove him from our protection and give them the opportunity to gain the Kyuubi. And as much of a threat as you feel Naruto may pose with Kyuubi sealed away within him, I assure you that Akatsuki with an un-sealed Kyuubi poses even more of a risk."

Koharu sneered. "We are well aware of Akatsuki and the threat they pose. Our information leads us to believe that even should the boy be exiled, they would not come after him for some time. This would give us time to prepare for whatever folly they have in mind and with Uzumaki on the run and not drawing them down upon our village, it may even allow us to make a preemptive strike against them to shut them down before they can cause us problems."

"That still doesn't answer my question," Tsunade pointed out.

This time, it was Danzou who spoke, confirming Tsunade's suspicions that while Koharu may have proposed the idea, Danzou was the real driving force behind it. "If you do not agree to exile Naruto and end his term as a shinobi of Konoha, we will be forced to convene a full council and propose that we not only remove him from the shinobi corps, but he be executed as a threat to Konoha and all of Fire Country. And while we realize that the council may not dismiss or execute a shinobi under the control of the Hokage without the Hokage's permission, getting the Fire Lord to overrule you would not be difficult."

"We are not, however, without compassion. We offer you this chance to possibly save the boy's life. While we will not pursue having him executed if you agree to this, what happens to him outside of the walls of Konoha will be none of our concern," Homura continued. "It is this council's understanding that Uzumaki, along with Kurenai's Team 8 is currently out on a mission and is not due back until tomorrow. We will give you three days, including today, to make your decision. If you choose to agree to our terms, Uzumaki must leave the village by nightfall of the third day. If he is still within the walls of Konoha beyond that time, he will be detained by ANBU to await the Fire Lord's decision."

"If we have not heard your answer by dusk of the third day, we will assume you will not agree to help us and ANBU will be put into position to detain the boy should he not leave by nightfall. Whether you tell him or not is up to you, however, should you not agree by dusk of the third day if Uzumaki Naruto leaves he will be marked as a missing-nin and hunted as such," Koharu explained before waving in the general direction of the door. "This council is done for the day. You are dismissed."

Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Tsunade nodded and stood, striding calmly from the meeting chamber back to the Hokage's office. As soon as Shizune closed the door behind her, Tsunade's temper finally boiled over. "THOSE FUCKERS!"

Shizune cringed as her sensei's foot passed through the most recent in a line of new desks since Tsunade's appointment to the position of Hokage. Instead of breaking in half or flying through a wall and halfway over Konoha like some of those before, this one exploded into wood fragments. Splinters and sawdust rained down around the room for a moment, along with several stacks of official documents and the contents of what had once been a desk. "Sensei?" Shizune asked carefully, after giving the older woman a moment to compose herself.

"Shizune, get me Jiraiya now," Tsunade ordered, dusting off her chair and plopping down in it. It was in that moment that inspiration struck—or maybe it was just the splinter that she'd missed digging into her ass. Either way, the older woman stood and motioned for Shizune to stop. "Hold on a minute. Forget about Jiraiya. Let's go for a walk," she stated, leading her confused apprentice out of the tower.

"A walk?" Shizune asked as the pair made their way towards a park near the town's west entrance. "Tsunade-sama, aren't you concerned for Naruto's safety? The council plans—"

Tsunade cut the younger woman off. "I am. I may have an idea, but I didn't think the office would be the best place to discuss it," she said, coming to a stop in front of a park bench facing the gate and sitting. A short distance away, a trio of kids she recognized as the Konohamaru Corps were busily painting graffiti onto a park bench. "HEY YOU BRATS! Cut that crap out!" she shouted, scaring the trio off. Motioning for Shizune to join her, she continued. "Before I say anything, how do you feel about this?"

Taking a moment to collect her thoughts, Shizune hugged Tonton to her chest. "Naruto is... like the annoying little brother or nephew I never wanted, never knew I needed until I met him. What the council is doing is wrong, bordering on treason., but we can't bring them up on charges for it unless we have some evidence to use against them that will sway the rest of the council against the ones responsible. If it were up to me, we would take Naruto and leave this place for good. But you can't, you've got your responsibilities as Hokage to uphold and I... you wouldn't survive a day without my help."

Tsunade smirked. "I'll have you know I'm not some helpless old woman—despite that brat arguing to the contrary. But I think you hit the nail on the head. Why can't we leave? Naruto is the only reason I came back to this place. The more of this crap I see, the more convinced I am that maybe Orochimaru is right and this place isn't worth saving any more. And if they're going to treat my family like shit, then I plan to return the favor."

"Tsunade-sama, you can't be thinking about..."

Tsunade nodded. "You once said you would follow me anywhere. Are you still sure about that?"

"Yes," Shizune answered. "You realize that if you do this, you're effectively agreeing to raise a child? I mean, sure, he's not a baby or anything but still..."

Tsunade chuckled, turning her eyes towards the gate as a flash of orange there caught her eye. "Naruto can look after himself. He's been doing it since he could walk, after all."

"True," Shizune agreed, following her sensei's line of sight and smiling at the sight of the team approaching the gates. "They're back a day early. And they look kind of beat up."

"If we're going to do this, we need a plan," the older woman pointed out. "The only reason Jiraiya and I were able to live away from Konoha for so long is because the old man allowed us to. Without someone like him around, we'll be declared missing-nin."

After a few moments of thought while watching Naruto and Team Kurenai interact, Shizune shot a sidelong glance towards her mentor. "You know, you _are_ Hokage. Any orders you give before resigning from the position must be upheld by the next Hokage. And if you were to name a successor, then you would be mostly sure of who was coming in after you. Jiraiya would be willing to go along with anything you told him, if he were to actually accept the position."

Realization dawned on Tsunade and the woman smirked. "You're right. That must have slipped my mind," she mumbled, turning a suspicious eye towards her student who she was almost certain had said something about the color of her hair. "Here's what we'll do. I want you to start gathering up A and B-ranked out-of-town missions that have already gone past my desk to the mission office. If you have to, tell Iruka you need to check over them to make sure I didn't screw something up and mis-rank one. It happens often enough to be believable. While you're doing that, I'll see about preparing supplies and getting some study material for Naruto." Standing, Tsunade took her assistant's hand and pulled her up from the bench. "Come on, let's get back to the office before they do. I want to debrief them personally."

Shizune followed her sensei back to the Hokage tower, throwing one last glance over her shoulder at the returning team. Kurenai trailed behind her team, hands behind her head and obviously enjoying the show they were putting on. Ahead of her, the Aburame seemed to be ignoring his teammates for one of his many kikai, this one perched on his finger and apparently holding a conversation.

The Inuzuka and his dog were in front, along with Naruto, with the Hyuuga girl to the blond's side and a pace behind. Naruto and Kiba were laughing about something, and every now and then Hinata would peek up from watching her feet to eye Naruto, blush, then look back down. It was during one of these glances that the young Hyuuga noticed Shizune observing from some distance ahead of them. Realizing she'd been caught at her favorite past-time, the girl blushed harder and turned her head to the side, studiously ignoring the world around her. Shizune giggled, catching back up to her sensei and leaning closer to her to she could speak softly, as they were nearing a more crowded part of the town. "I think our Naruto-kun has an admirer."

Raising an eyebrow, Tsunade started to turn and look only to be stopped by Shizune. "No, don't look! She'll notice. She already spotted me."

Tsunade sighed, rolling her eyes. "Oh fine. At least tell me who it is."

"The Hyuuga girl on Kurenai-san's team. Hinata, I think."

"Oh, her," Tsunade nodded. "She _is_ kind of cute. And a Hyuuga too, and we know she has the Byakugan," she trailed off in thought. After a moment, Shizune turned her gaze to observe her sensei and paled when she recognized the smirk on the older woman's face. "You know, I've been wanting to take on an apprentice in their generation. I was leaning towards Haruno, since she has near-perfect chakra control, but a Hyuuga is fine too..."

"Tsunade-sama, you wouldn't," Shizune gasped but was forced to cut any protests she had short as they entered the administration building.

"Shizune, why don't you take care of the mission scrolls while I head back to my office? When Team Kurenai gets in, you can bring them up," Tsunade suggested loud enough for Iruka, who had been assigned to mission-room duty, to hear.

"Naruto's team is back? They weren't due in until tomorrow at the earliest," he pointed out, the worry evident in his voice.

Shizune nodded in answer to Iruka's question, stepping around Iruka's desk and digging through the cabinet for the mission scrolls. "Yeah, we just saw them coming in. They should be here in a few minutes. Don't worry though, they didn't look too worse for wear." Hearing Iruka sigh in relief, Shizune couldn't help herself. "Well, at least no one seemed to be missing any limbs."

Iruka went rigid in his seat for a moment before he realized that the medic was teasing him. Turning around, he shot her a half-hearted glare. "What are you doing back there anyway? Is Hokage-sama going to send Naruto out again any time soon?"

Shizune hid her wince but continued gathering scrolls. "I'm gathering up all the high-ranked mission scrolls. I think Tsunade-sama may have mis-ranked some. And no, I'm pretty sure she won't send Naruto out on another mission for a couple of days. You should take him out for ramen once they get done with the debriefing."

Iruka chuckled, shaking his head. "I was actually thinking about doing that, but I'm broke until pay-day, since I took Naruto out for ramen before they left."

Looking over her stack of scrolls and making sure she hadn't missed any, Shizune turned her attention to Iruka for a moment before pulling out her wallet and handing him several bills. "Here, you can pay me back later."

Iruka shook his head, cheeks coloring in embarrassment. "I couldn't possibly—"

Shizune snatched his hand up and forced the money into it. "You can and you will. Go have fun with Naruto later, and stop being so modest," she admonished, gathering her scrolls and turning towards the door just in time for Team Kurenai to make their way into the mission room. "Team Kurenai, Tsunade-sama is waiting for you in her office," Shizune told them, stepping around Iruka's desk and nearly stepping on Tonton. "Naruto, could you get Tonton for me? My hands are kind of full."

Shrugging, the blond bent over and picked up the pig, turning around to follow Shizune up the stairs to Tsunade's office. "Hinata, are you ok? Your face looks kind of red," the boy pointed out, earning barely suppressed laughter from Kurenai and Shizune, a groan from Iruka, and more blushing from the girl in question who had nearly been caught looking at Naruto's ass. Seeing her shake her head, he grinned. "So what's Tsunade-baachan want with us anyway?"

"Mission debriefing, Naruto," Kurenai pointed out, getting a nod from the blond. "And as amusing as hearing that is, you should show more respect for Tsunade-sama. After all, she is—"

"One of the Densetsu no Sannin, Legendary Medic, blah blah blah," Naruto summarized, rolling his eyes. "She's still 'obaa-chan' to me."

Kurenai would have argued the point, but decided it was a wasted effort when their Hokage acted just as childish as the boy in front of her. The older woman proved her point by nailing Naruto in the forehead with a thrown stapler as he entered the room. "What was that, you brat?" she growled out.

Naruto rubbed at the imprint left on his forehead by the bottom of the stapler before picking it up and returning fire, dropping Tonton in the process. "I said you're an old hag, you old hag!"

When Tsunade picked up the stapler and flung it back at the boy, Shizune intercepted it before it could hit its mark, having set her scrolls down on the new desk. "You two can play later," she admonished, putting the stapler back on the desk and moving to stand behind Tsunade.

"So, tell me about your mission," Tsunade ordered, taking a seat and motioning for the others to sit as well. Over the next hour and a half, the genin and Kurenai took turns reporting the events of their mission, Tsunade stopping them occasionally to ask questions. "I see. So this one is going to be marked as a failure then?"

Naruto pouted, but nodded. "It's not my fault," he grumbled, getting a few snickers out of Kiba.

"Well, if that's all you have to report," she started, getting nods from Team Kurenai and Naruto, "then you're dismissed. You have the rest of the week off. Naruto, Hinata, stay here for a few minutes would you?"

Once Kurenai, Kiba, Akamaru, and Shino had gone, Naruto turned his attention to Tsunade. "So, what's up baachan?"

Tsunade grit her teeth in annoyance but didn't rise to the bait. "Firstly... Naruto, how would you feel about leaving the village on an extended training mission?"

Giving it a moment of thought, Naruto shrugged. "I dunno. Sounds ok, I guess. I like traveling. Who am I going with? Ero-sennin?"

Tsunade snickered. "Perhaps. I hate to send you out again so soon, but some things have come up. Go home and start packing. Has Jiraiya taught you how to make storage scrolls yet?"

Naruto shook his head. "Nope. He's mostly worked on taijutsu, rasengan, and using..." He cut off, shooting a glance at Hinata from the corner of his eye.

"I see," Tsunade nodded. Shizune leaned in from behind her and whispered something in her ear and Tsunade nodded again before pulling out a small booklet from one of her drawers and scribbling something onto it. Tearing the page off, she handed it to the boy. "Here, go down stairs and give this to Iruka. Tell him I said he's off for the rest of the day and to close the mission office, then the two of you can go buy a few storage scrolls and you can get to packing. You will meet tomorrow morning at the north gate, five A.M.."

"Five in the morning?! Are you crazy?" Naruto shouted, pointing at the woman accusingly. "You must be going senile if you think I'm getting up that early."

"You'll get up early and you'll like it, brat!" Tsunade growled back. "Now, get," she yelled, shooing him from her office and frowning when he stuck his tongue out at her.

Once Naruto was gone, Hinata turned her attention back to the rapidly calming Hokage. "A.. ano..."

"Right, Hinata, on to business," Tsunade started, motioning for Shizune to close the doors to her office. Once she was sure they were closed, Tsunade smiled at the meek girl, hoping to reassure her. "So tell me Hinata-chan, what are your intentions towards my little Naruto-kun?" Hearing Shizune cough loudly behind her, Tsunade rolled her eyes. "Sorry, _our_ Naruto-kun."

"A.. I— um," Hinata spluttered, face going from pink to maroon and looking to hit purple soon.

"We're just teasing you, Hinata-san. Don't worry, your secret is safe with us," Shizune giggled, hoping to keep the young woman from passing out.

Tsunade grinned at the younger girl before turning serious. "As you know, Naruto has unofficially been apprenticed to Jiraiya. With the Uchiha betraying us to go learn under my other team-mate, that leaves one Sannin without an apprentice from your generation."

Hinata nodded her understanding. "K-kurenai-sensei said that you were looking at Haruno-san for that position as she has good chakra control and is the only member of Team 7 not apprenticed to one of the Sannin," she stated quietly, trying not to get her hopes up that their Hokage would possibly want to apprentice someone as useless as her.

Tsunade nodded in agreement. "I was. Haruno has near-perfect chakra control, or so her sensei says. However, some things have come up recently and she may not be the best choice for the position. You, on the other hand, have excellent chakra control, your sensei tells me you've shown some interest in medicine, and you possess the Byakugan."

"M-me?"

"Yes, I think you would be the best for the job. However, there are a few things you must be made aware of first. Also, I have a condition—well, a couple actually—that you must accept before I would take you on as my apprentice." Hinata nodded, too afraid to open her mouth and ruin this chance, and Tsunade continued. "My first condition: you're going to have to become more self-confident. Speak up for yourself, stop looking down all the time, stop trying to hide yourself, and for gods' sake stop stuttering. I know it's going to be hard to go against ingrained actions learned over a life-time, so I'm not going to expect drastic changes immediately. Just promise me you'll try."

"I-i..." Hinata cut herself off, biting her bottom lip and taking a deep breath. "I promise, I will do my best."

Smiling, Tsunade continued. "Good. It's a start, at least. As for my other conditions... well, I'll let you know in time. Before you accept though, there is something I should ask. Shizune tells me that you would be fairly open to the idea, but I have my doubts," Tsunade paused, considering the girl a moment before plunging on. "The village council, or some representative members of it anyway, came to me today and gave me an ultimatum. I must either remove Naruto from the ninja corps and banish him from Konoha, or they will have him executed. I've been given three days to make my decision."

"T-they can't! Control of Konoha's shinobi force rests with the Hokage, by design, so that the council can not order, dismiss, reprimand, or execute ninja under the control of the Hokage. Iruka taught us this in our last year studying under him. They could not do so without either your permission or..."

"Or if they go over my head directly to the Fire Lord," Tsunade finished, nodding. Seeing the dawning realization and horror on Hinata's face, Tsunade sighed. "You know, I can count on one hand the number of people I actually love and would do nearly anything for who are still alive today. That brat is the one who convinced me to come back to this stupid village in the first place. If he were gone, well, there wouldn't be much of a point in me staying would there?"

Hinata shook her head, agreeing whole-heartedly. "Isn't there something we can do? Perhaps my father..."

Tsunade snickered. "Not likely. Hiashi's had a stick up his ass for a few years now and I don't think he's going to forgive Naruto for knocking it loose during the chuunin exam any time soon. So, my question to you is, how would you feel about leaving Konoha for a while?"

"With Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked immediately. Seeing Tsunade nod, Hinata almost agreed on the spot but held herself back from making a decision right then. On the one hand, she would be leaving behind all of her friends, her family, and possibly be betraying her village. On the other hand, she would be traveling with Naruto-kun. ...Oh, who was she kidding? Her only friends were Kurenai-sensei and her teammates, most of her family hated her, and any place that would be willing to execute someone as nice as Naruto-kun for no reason whatsoever was no place she wanted to stay. That thought brought the girl up short.

"Ano... why are they trying to hard to get rid of Naruto-kun?" she asked, thinking back to all the times she'd been the blond's own stalker-fangirl and the looks that the majority of the village had given him. None of it made any sense. Sure, the boy was loud and used to pull pranks full time, but he'd only started doing that when he joined the academy, and he had been alone and hated long before then.

Tsunade turned to look at Shizune, who bit her lip and nodded. Sighing, the older woman turned back around and focused her attention on Hinata. "You love him, don't you." It was not a question. Seeing the girl's blush and hesitant nod, Tsunade nodded. "What I'm about to tell you is an S-class secret... but doesn't really mean anything since no one bothers to enforce the spirit of Sandaime's Law," at the girl's confused look, she continued. In a moment of insight, she reached inside her desk and pulled out a spare scroll. "What do you know about seals? Specifically, storage seals."

Hinata shrugged at the change in topic. "They use the chakra of the one who performs the sealing to store an object inside of another object."

Pulling out a brush and some ink, Tsunade quickly scribed a small storage seal onto the blank scroll, then pulled out a kunai. "I was too lazy to do this for Naruto, but then again, I wanted him out of the office. Now, this is now a storage scroll, right?" Seeing Hinata nod, she held up the kunai. "And you agree that this is just a kunai?" Another nod, and the blond sealed the kunai into the scroll, which the then held up. "And this?"

"A storage scroll with a kunai sealed into it," the younger girl answered, not seeing the point to this demonstration.

"You're sure it's not a kunai?" Tsunade asked, again getting a nod. "So it's pretty damn simple to tell the difference, right?" Another nod. "Finally, someone in this village with some common-fucking-sense."

"I don't see how this relates to Naruto-kun," Hinata pointed out quietly, not wanting to upset the woman in what appeared to be a moment of triumph for her.

Shizune answered this time, after taking a breath to steady herself. "You know Naruto's birthday is the 10th of October, right?" Seeing the girl's blush and nod, she continued. "Almost fourteen years ago now, isn't it? What else happened that night?"

Hinata already knew the answer and had paled the moment Shizune mentioned how many years it had been. Things that, moments ago had made no sense, she now understood. "Yondaime didn't kill the Kyuubi?" she asked, getting a nod from both older women.

Tsunade snorted. "It was a creature composed almost entirely of chakra—well, demonic chakra, or youki in this case—with no real physical body to speak of. How the hell do you kill something like that? The short answer: you don't. It was already dead, I suppose. A self-sustaining mass of fury-driven youki, whose tails could topple mountains and cause tsunamis... It really was a monster."

"Yondaime gave his life to save us, but at the price of his own. The jutsu he used was sort of an equivalent-exchange jutsu: a life for a life," Shizune explained. "More than that really. It was a human sacrifice to trap a demon. And with a demon like Kyuubi, there's no way you could just seal it into an inanimate object. It would break free in no time. As for an animal... well, it would just possess whatever animal he put it in and eventually build itself a new body, and go on about its business. And if it ever died, it would be released into its original form."

"The only thing with the will-power strong enough to suppress the demon behind a seal would be a human, and the only human capable of handling that much raw chakra without burning out would have to be a child, since an adult's chakra pathways are mostly set in their ways and resistant to change. Any adult Yondaime put it in would have simply burned up from the inside out in time and we'd be back where we started. But a child... A child could adapt, if given a chance to do so over time." Tsunade looked at Hinata to judge the girl's reaction.

After taking a moment to take the information in, Hinata's eyes narrowed. "So Naruto-kun is the container for the Kyuubi?" Tsunade and Shizune nodded. "And the people of Konoha believe him to be the Kyuubi re-incarnate, not just the beast's jailer?" Two more nods. "And instead of treating him like the hero he is, or at least fearing him as the demon they believe him to be, they want to have him killed?" More nods. "...I'll go pack my things."

Tsunade laughed and waved the girl to sit back down. "Well, it's nice to know you're with us, apprentice."

Hinata blushed again, her index fingers poking together. "T-thank you.," she mumbled, then blinked. "'Us?'"

Tsunade nodded. "Like I said, if Naruto isn't here there really isn't a point in me staying."

"And as First Apprentice, I'm sort of responsible for Tsunade-sama. I go where she goes," Shizune added, gaining a grumbled 'I'm not a child,' from Tsunade.

Smiling, Hinata nodded her understanding. "When do we leave?"

"Early tomorrow morning. I want to be out of here and on the road before they realize what's going on. Since the majority of our high-ranking ninja are out on missions, we should be able to slip out without too many problems. It will take at least a week for anyone capable of hunting us down to get back into town and for them to assemble a team," Tsunade stated. "I don't think I need to tell you this, but you can't mention this to anyone. Go home, store everything you want to bring in scrolls, and meet us at the north gate by five tomorrow morning. We're going to be traveling light and fast, so the less weight you have to carry the better." At Hinata's nod, Tsunade waved her towards the door. "Dismissed."

Once Hinata had left the room, Tsunade turned to Shizune. "So, how many missions did you get?"

"Eleven, Tsunade-shishou, five A-ranked and six B-ranked. All of them are well outside of Konoha and none are due to be completed for at least a month."

Nodding, Tsunade eyed the scrolls before spotting something else on her desk. Reaching over, she picked up the Hokage's official seal and smirked at Shizune. "You know, this is the first time since I took this job that I've actually looked forward to paperwork," she said, putting the seal down and picking up several sheets of paper and a pen and began to scrawl out orders. Tsunade's first few orders were short and to the point, and each was stamped as soon as she finished it.

_I, Senju Tsunade, Godaime Hokage, do hereby appoint Hyuuga Hinata as my second apprentice. Effective Immediately._

_I, Senju Tsunade, Godaime Hokage, do hereby promote Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Hinata to the rank of Chuunin on my authority. Effective Immediately._

_I, Senju Tsunade, Godaime Hokage, do hereby pardon Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Hinata, Shizune, and myself of all crimes against Konohagakure no Sato and Hi no Kuni. Also, I do hereby release the above from any and all obligations to Konohagakure no Sato and Hi no Kuni past, present, or future. Also, I do hereby release the above from the Shinobi ranks of Konohagakure no Sato freely, with all their current ranks and titles, but offer them the chance to rejoin the ranks at a later date upon the approval of the Hokage. Effective Immediately.  
_  
_I, Senju Tsunade, Godaime Hokage, do hereby name as my successor to the position of Hokage in the event of my demise or retirement, Jiraiya of the Sannin._

_I, Senju Tsunade, Godaime Hokage, do hereby __ban__ the use of seals or jutsu meant to control or punish individuals from being placed upon any willing or unwilling member of this village. Any and all of such seals and jutsu must be registered with the office of the Hokage, complete with a method for removal. Any individual or group who is found to be using such seals or jutsu or has used such seals or jutsu in the past without a method of removal is to be executed publicly, regardless of rank, social status, or standing within the village, as a warning to those who wish to use such methods. Any person subjected to such seal or jutsu, should it be unable to be removed, shall be granted land and monetary compensation on the order of one million ryo for every year they have been subjected to the seal or jutsu in question, the money for which will be taken from the accused's accounts or lands._

Tsunade smirked, stamping the latest of her decrees. By that time, it was approaching dark and most of the staff in the tower had gone home for the night. "Shizune, how much money does Konoha have in the treasury at the moment?"

Digging through a file cabinet, Shizune came up with a monthly income sheet for the village. "Currently, we have... nine-hundred seventy-six million, four-hundred eighty-one thousand, and eleven ryo. That's after taking into account recent mission payments to the village, shinobi wages, and general expenses of the administration."

Rubbing her hands together, Tsunade did some mental math. "Shizune, make up the paperwork to release five-hundred million ryo to the Hokage. List the expense under black ops or something if you have to, then go collect the money from the treasury while they're still open for the night."

"Hai, Tsunade-shishou," Shizune giggled, going about her assigned task.

Standing from her chair, Tsunade strode from the office towards the Hokage's private library. She nodded to the two chuunin guards at the door and one of them opened it for her. Closing the door behind her, she looked around the room and grinned, immediately spotting her first target of choice: the Forbidden Scroll of Seals. Over an hour later, she made her way out of the library and back to her office, a single scroll in her possession—the storage stroll she'd hastily made for her demonstration with Hinata. One last order made its way onto the pile with the others, signed and stamped by her own hand.

_I, Senju Tsunade, Godaime Hokage, do hereby release into my custody the entire contents of the Hokage's personal library, to be returned at my discretion._

The next morning found our favorite orange-clad blond yawning in front of the north gate as the sky began to lighten in the east. Closing his eyes for a moment, the boy opened them again when he felt someone approaching his position. Looking up, he spotted Hyuuga Hinata coming quickly up the road. The girl stopped near him, shooting him a quick smile before blushing and looking down, her fingers pressing together. Remembering her promise to Tsunade the evening before, she steeled herself and spoke. "Good morning Naruto-kun," she greeted quietly, amazed at the lack of a stutter in her own voice.

"Eh, morning Hinata-chan," he returned her greeting around a yawn, missing her worsening blush as his eyes closed to accommodate the yawn. "What are you doing out this early?"

Hinata bit her lower lip softly, unsure of whether or not to tell Naruto the truth. Finally, she compromised, and settled on telling him the truth... just not the whole truth. "I'm going to be leaving the village with my sensei," she answered simply.

"Oh? Where's Kurenai-sensei taking you? And where are Kiba and Shino?" The boy asked, then scrunched up his face in concentration. "Wait a minute. Didn't Tsunade-baachan give your team the rest of the week off?"

"Hai," she answered, nodding. "Team 8 is not leaving, just sensei and I, her other apprentice, and another member of our team."

"Sounds fun. So, where are you going?"

Hinata frowned, thinking it over. "I.. don't know."

"How about where ever the wind takes us?" called a voice from up the road.

Looking away from Hinata, Naruto spotted Tsunade and Shizune—who was carrying her pet pig—coming up the road. "Oi! I thought you said I'd be traveling with Ero-sannin."

Bringing a finger to her lip, Tsunade appeared to think on the question for a moment. In reality, she was just drawing things out to further annoy the younger blond. "Hmm... Nope, can't say I recall saying that. In fact, I'm pretty sure I just asked if you wanted to leave on a training mission."

Shizune nodded. "She's right Naruto-kun. You need to pay more attention to these kinds of things. It could get you into trouble in the future if you don't listen more carefully to the things people are trying to tell you."

Naruto blinked and turned to Hinata. "Wait, so then you're going with them?" he asked, getting a nod. "And I'm going with you?" he asked towards Tsunade, getting another nod. Naruto nodded, giving the matter a moment of deep thought before giving the reply he thought would most irritate the older blond. "...Troublesome."

"Watch it, brat!" Tsunade growled, grinding her fist into the top of his head. "So, are we all packed?" she asked, receiving nods all around. "No one knows you're going?" More nods. "Did you turn the burners on your stove off Naruto?"

"Shit! I knew I forgot something," the blond grumbled, turning back towards the apartment, only to be stopped by Tsunade. Turning to look at her, he saw the smirk adorning her face and couldn't help the shudder that crept up his spine.

"Let it burn."

"Tsunade-sama," Shizune reprimanded her sensei, but there was no real force in her words.

"Ok then. Let's go, Team Hokage!" Tsunade cheered, the official Hokage hat flopping against her back as she threw her fist into the air, pointing north.


	2. Team Hokage

The Missing Hokage

**The Missing Hokage**

**02: Team Hokage**

* * *

After several hours of running flat out, Shizune observed that most of her team-mates were beginning to show signs of fatigue. She signaled to Tsunade and the sannin nodded, stopping on the next branch she landed on and brought the group to a halt. "Ok team, we'll take a short break to catch our breath and decide where to go next."

Dropping to the ground along with the three females, Naruto groaned and sat down. "You mean you had no idea where the hell you were taking us?"

Tsunade's eyes narrowed in annoyance as she pulled out her canteen and took a sip. "For your information brat, any direction but the one we intended to go would have been fine."

Hoping to forestall an argument, Shizune spoke before Naruto could retort. "Why don't we look over these mission scrolls and see which need to be done first and go from there?" she suggested.

"Ano..." Hinata murmured, catching the attention of the others. "Perhaps we should make a full inventory?"

Nodding in agreement, Tsunade held out her hand towards Shizune. "Give me your stuff and I'll see what we've got while you look over the missions."

After handing Tsunade a pair of storage scrolls, Shizune set about planning their first destination while the others brought out their own gear and set about taking inventory. At Tsunade's urging they started the inventory with a weapons check. "Ok, I'm carrying a dozen kunai and a pack of twenty shuriken. I've got a basic field emergency kit, a few changes of clothes, and three days worth of supplies. Shizune has the same, plus a pack of one hundred senbon, all poison-tipped. Hinata?"

The Hyuuga girl looked up from her count. "I have ten kunai, thirty shuriken, a five-meter spool of wire, and ten senbon. I have some medicinal salves that I mixed for Team 8, a basic field emergency kit, extra clothes, four days worth of water and rations, and a short range radio."

Tsunade nodded, turning towards Naruto. "Well?"

Blushing, Naruto rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "Do I have to?" he asked, getting a glare from Tsunade and curious looks from Hinata and Shizune. "Fine," the blond huffed, not bothering to actually pull out anything to count. "Unsealed, I have forty kunai, forty shuriken, ten meters of wire, a hundred pack of explosive notes, and a medium sized folding fuuma shuriken. Sealed, I've got about two hundred more kunai, double that in shuriken, about a kilometer of wire, two hundred more explosive tags, about twenty large smoke bombs, five of those really big fuuma shuriken that don't fold down, a kama, a pair of tonfa, and about two hundred senbon. Oh, and I've got a couple of basic trap kits. I've got two weeks worth of ramen sealed somewhere, a couple of days supply of water, a short range radio, a set of field binoculars, and a net."

The trio of women blinked, trading looks somewhere between bemused and amazed. "Where did you get all of that stuff?" Shizune asked.

"Better yet," Tsunade grumbled, "how the hell did you afford it? And why are you carrying all of that crap anyway?"

Naruto shrugged. "I just sort of started collecting stuff that people left in the training fields. It's not like I stole it or anything, people just leave all sorts of good stuff just laying around. Everything I've got here—even the stuff I found damaged—is way better than anything any of the stores in Konoha would ever sell me. After a while, I got used to repairing all of my own stuff so it's all in good condition. And this isn't all of it. There's more back in Konoha hidden across a few training fields in case my apartment got robbed again. I've got clothes, weapons, and replacements for most of my smaller appliances."

"Was Konoha r-really that terrible to you Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked, already knowing they had mistreated the blond but not the true extent of it.

Naruto waved off their concern. "Naw. They stopped robbing my place for the most part when I started trapping my doors and windows once Iruka taught us how in the academy. After that, they hadn't really bothered the place until I went out looking for Baachan with Ero-sennin."

Shizune sighed, setting aside the mission scrolls. "Naruto, one day we're going to have you tell us everything that those idiots have done to you over the years and we'll find a way to pay them back for it." Looking towards her mentor, she motioned towards the scrolls. "We're going to Otafuku Gai. From there, we'll go east to a port city and catch a boat south to Sea Country. Konoha was hired to investigate rumors of a sea monster there. After that, we'll sail back up to Degarashi Port in Tea Country to hopefully meet the next client before they make it to Konoha. We'll have time to start training these two in the down time between most of these missions. So, it's been killing me to know for a while now, what exactly did you take from the Hokage's Office and Library before we left?" she asked of Tsunade.

Smirking, Tsunade withdrew a storage scroll and twirled it between her fingers dramatically... and then dropped it. Rolling her eyes, she picked it back up and addressed her current apprentices and hopefully-soon-to-be apprentice. "Lots of stuff. Aside from my hat, most of it's pretty useless. For Instance, there is a scroll of Mokuton techniques written by Shodai. I think I also managed to pick up all of sensei's Icha Icha collection..."

Naruto growled in frustration. "Come on you old hag, get to the good stuff already!" he shouted, voicing both Shizune's and Hinata's own impatience at their mutual sensei.

"Patience, grasshopper," Tsunade smirked, further irritating the younger blond. "If you must know, I picked up a few goodies too. Like the Forbidden Scroll of Seals, Nidaime's Raijin, and Sandaime's summoning contract. I also picked up the Hokage's personal library of jutsu—which was started by Shodai and has been added to by every Hokage since. It's essentially a list of every non-clan-specific jutsu and seal to have been brought into or developed by Konoha and instructions on how to perform them. Oh, and I got the Black Book too."

Shizune gasped, though the implications were lost on the two chuunin. "I thought that was just a myth," the young medic breathed in awe.

Tsunade shook her head. "Nope, it's real."

"What is it, Tsunade-shishou?" Hinata asked, voicing the question both she and Naruto had.

"It is a record of things that aren't supposed to have been recorded," Shizune explained. "In ANBU, a black book, black files, or a black folder would refer to any secret records kept of operations that could potentially cause problems for a village were knowledge of them to become widespread."

"A Kage's black book is the same thing, but on a larger scale. I can't speak for the other Kages, but the Hokage's Black Book contains detailed records going all the way back to Shodai's era. It holds all of Konoha's dirty little secrets, or at least all of the ones the Hokage knew of or had a hand in. If this were to go public, we could discredit Konoha for years to come," Tsunade elaborated.

Naruto shrugged, scratching his head in confusion. "Why would we want to? We have to go back eventually, even if you did manage to give yourself a vacation somehow."

The three women shared a look before coming to a mutual agreement. Shizune attempted to break the news gently. "Naruto-kun, we aren't going back."

"Huh? Why not?"

Sighing, Tsunade decided that he wouldn't understand their reasons unless he were given the whole truth. True to form, she approached the subject with as much tact as possible—which is to say, none. "We left for good. Before you got back yesterday, the council approached me with an ultimatum: either I kick you out of the ninja program and exile you from Konoha, or they would label you as a threat to the village and go over my head to get the Fire Lord's approval to have you executed. They gave me until dusk tomorrow to make my decision, which is also probably the earliest they'll even notice us missing."

"Ok, I understand kicking me out if the only other choice is letting them kill me, but why did you leave? You all could have stayed home and no one would have really cared if you were my friends, as long as I was gone," the younger blond questioned. "I mean, Tsunade-baachan is Hokage... HEY! I got you that job and you're just going to ditch it?! And Shizune-chan had stuff to do in the hospital. And Hinata-chan, what about your team and your family?"

Surprisingly, it was Hinata who answered, and the answer she gave shocked the boy into silence. "We left for you, Naruto-kun!" she nearly shouted, then blushed, looking suddenly sheepish. Taking a breath to steady herself, she continued. "We decided that a village without you, a place that could do those things to you wasn't a place worth staying. Tsunade-sama and Shizune-senpai only came back to Konoha because of you, and to be forced to choose to decide whether to exile you or let them kill you was about the greatest betrayal they could have made on her part. As for myself... I.. I lo—" The word froze in her throat and she found she didn't quite have the courage to tell him _that_ just yet. "I love my team, they're the closest thing I have to a real family. Kurenai-sensei reminds me of my mother, before she died, and Kiba and Shino have been like brothers to me. The Hyuuga clan has never really been a real family to me, even while my mother was still alive. It wouldn't have been worth staying without you there."

Speaking before the younger blond could get his wits back about him, Tsunade continued. "So, before we left I asked Hinata if she would like to become my second apprentice and come with us. Since she's here, you can guess how that went. Last night, after I sent you out to spend time with Iruka and sent Hinata home to pack, we grabbed as much as we could and put in some last-minute paperwork before getting ready to go ourselves. Oh, before I forget... Naruto, Hinata," she addressed the pair, sitting up straighter, "congratulations. You've been promoted to the rank of Chuunin. Before I left, I dismissed us all from the service of Konoha and the Fire Lord. And since it was a legal order signed and stamped by the Hokage herself, we are free to go where we please within the borders of Hi no Kuni and none of those overstuffed, bureaucratic idiots can do a thing about it legally."

"So... we're not missing-nin?" the boy asked.

"Nope. We're free agents. Ninja with no loyalties to any village, free to go where we please and take jobs as they come along. Well, so long as we don't piss off the wrong people. We should probably avoid Kumo and Iwa for the time being too," Tsunade mused.

Taking a few moments to take in everything he'd been told, Naruto began to understand that he had loyal friends who would stick with him—apparently even if it meant abandoning the place they'd once called home. Knowing there was no real way of showing how much he appreciated what they had done and were willing to do for him at the moment, he decided to do the next best thing for now and throw himself into this whole-heartedly. Discreetly wiping away a tear, the blond took a steadying breath before shooting the trio of girls a huge grin. "So, if we aren't going back, what are we going to do now?"

The trio returned the boy's smile and Shizune gestured towards the stack of mission scrolls. "Tsunade-shishou and I talked about it last night and we've decided to train the two of you up into competent ninja."

"Which is going to be more of a pain in the ass for you, Naruto, since your formal education is—for lack of a better term—lacking," Tsunade cut in.

Naruto's eyes narrowed at the older blond. "Are you calling me stupid?"

"If the geta fits," Tsunade growled back.

Seeing that another fight was about to break out, Shizune intervened yet again, already convinced of her place on this team as peace-maker. "No, Naruto-kun, what Tsunade-shishou is trying to say is that because you didn't have the benefit of a ninja family or clan, you aren't as far along as those that do are. For example, how many chakra training exercises do you know?"

Scratching the back of his head, Naruto shrugged. "Just three: leaf floating, tree climbing, and water walking. I'm good with the last two, but kind of suck at leaf floating."

"Hinata?" Shizune asked.

The young Hyuuga looked nervous to have been put on the spot. "A-ano... aside from exercises specific to use with the Byakugan, there are at least two others I know of, though both are fairly simple. The first is to become aware of and adjust your body's internal chakra flow. This can be done over the whole body or in part, and is really just taking the tree climbing and water walking exercises further by realizing that chakra can be channeled through any part of the body and not just the hands and feet. The other is to regulate the flow of chakra outside one's body and either raise or lower outer body temperature and repel or remove water or dust from the skin and clothes."

"And that's just a small example of what you've missed out on Naruto-kun," Shizune explained. "If we're going to try to teach you any of Tsunade-shishou's techniques then we will first need to improve your chakra control, along with spending time to teach you the basics of human anatomy so you'll be able to properly utilize any techniques we teach you."

"Wait, you're going to be teaching me medical jutsu?" the blond asked. "Why? I've never really needed any before, and kyu—" Naruto cut himself off and decided to rephrase that before his secret got out. "My wounds heal pretty fast anyway. It would be great to learn that chakra scalpel technique Kabuto uses though."

Tsunade sighed, she'd known this conversation was coming but had hoped to hold it off for a while. "Yes, we're going to be teaching you medical jutsu, which would make you my third apprentice."

"What's in it for me? I mean, Ero-sennin taught me the rasengan so maybe I should go find him..." the boy argued stubbornly, but mainly just to annoy the older woman. He would jump at the chance to learn any new technique, even medical jutsu. He'd seen a few of the things Tsunade used, and nearly all of it was dead useful—even if he wouldn't be using it on himself. That seal on her forehead, for instance, could be a great back-up if Kyuubi's regeneration ever failed or just wasn't enough. And the chakra-storage potential alone would be worth learning how to do it. Chakra, being the life-blood of ninja, was pretty much the most important tool in a ninja's arsenal. More chakra means more jutsu, more stamina, and a higher likelihood of succeeding. And even Naruto, with his own vast chakra reserves in addition to Kyuubi's to tap into, had hit the bottom of that well once or twice before so more would be welcome.

Growling, Tsunade grabbed the boy and ground her fist into the top of his head, cutting off his thoughts. "The privilege of calling a sannin 'master' and learning a few jutsu in the process should be enough!" she ground out, swatting away Shizune's hand as she attempted to rescue Naruto from suffocating in the older woman's bust. "But if I have to spell it out for you, fine. Not everyone can live through taking a chidori to the lung. For most of us, that would be fatal. That's where medic-nin come in. I know it doesn't sound as cool as going out there and blowing shit to pieces with a rasengan, but saving lives is a reward in itself. Besides, it's also one of the highest paying ninja-related professions. And if you hadn't figured it out yet, we grabbed the other stuff out of the library so we could teach _you_ how to do it. If you're good and study hard, then maybe we'll reward you for it with a special jutsu."

"Special?" the boy managed to get out around a face-full of Tsunade's cloth-covered boob-flesh.

"As in from the Forbidden Scroll, Naruto-kun," Shizune clarified.

Finally managing to extricate himself from the blond medic, Naruto took the chance to catch his breath and looked between the two older kunoichi. "Really? I only ever got the chance to learn Kage Bunshin from that thing. Most of the stuff in there looked too hard to learn at the time and I only had about three hours from the time I stole the scroll to learn something before Iruka showed up, and by then I was running kind of low on chakra."

"Yes, really," Tsunade answered. "Once Shizune and I have a chance to go over the things in the scroll, we'll teach you what we think you can use from it when you learn a medical jutsu or two. That offer applies to both of you, by the way."

"Um," Hinata murmured, looking between Naruto and the two older medics. When they motioned for her to continue, she asked, "Chidori?"

Naruto laughed and waved her question off. "Yeah, when I tried to bring Sasuke back he kind of accidentally hit me with it. It wasn't really as bad as it sounds. I mean, I was fine after a few days."

Seeing the questioning look on Hinata's face, Shizune explained, thought she was annoyed that the boy would brush off an attempt on his life as an accident. "Chidori, or Raikiri really, is a lightening-based A-ranked assassination technique. Kakashi's only original jutsu, really. It's one of those shove-your-arm-through-someone techniques that requires a Sharingan and the ability to move faster than people without the Sharingan can track to be really useful. And he taught it to a stupid genin," she said, the last part coming out in an annoyed huff.

"And when did Naruto-kun get the Forbidden Scroll?" the girl asked, turning to Naruto. "I thought it was under guard or under the protection of the Hokage."

Naruto chuckled, eyes squinting shut as he grinned at her. "Remember I failed the genin exam? Mizuki-teme told me there was a secret way to pass, a practical exam of ninja skill rather than a paper test. So I snuck into the tower, hit Oji-san with an oiroke no jutsu, stole the scroll, and hid out in a training field for a few hours learning kage bunshin. Iruka-sensei found me just as I'd finished learning it, then Mizuki-teme showed up and.. said some stuff and attacked us. Iruka made me run, they chased me for a while until Mizuki-teme caught Iruka-sensei thinking he was me since he'd been using henge at the time. Mizuki tried to kill Iruka-sensei with one of those giant fuuma shuriken, I stopped it and used kage bunshin to beat him into the ground. So since I beat up a chuunin and completed Mizuki's make-up test, the old man decided to go on and pass it. That's where I got my first two fuuma shuriken," the blond finished, unsealing the shuriken in question to show it off before sealing it back up again.

"So, do you understand the situation now, Naruto?" Tsunade asked. Seeing the boy nod, she stood and stretched, reaching behind her back to pop a few vertebra and giving everyone present even more of an eye full of her bust. "Good, because it's time for us to get moving again. we've got a lot of ground to cover before dark and I don't feel like spending a night in the woods. If we push, we can make it to Otafuku Gai before then."

As night approached, the foursome came upon the lights of Otafuku Gai. "We'll stop here for the night and pick up again in the morning," Tsunade announced, leading them through the city gates and towards the tourist district, where they would be able to find a hotel. Halfway there, Tsunade looked over to Naruto and paused, bringing the group up short. "We need to do something about that," she murmured, eying the blond.

Naruto eyed the older blond suspiciously. "About what?" he asked, some unclear and not quite developed male instinct telling him to bolt.

Shizune sighed, speaking up before her sensei opened her big mouth and caused a scene, making them stand out even more than they already did. "You stand out too much Naruto-kun. The first thing anyone coming after us is going to ask will be 'have you seen a kid with blond hair wearing a lot of orange in the area,' and of course you'll be easy to remember since not many people have blond hair and the combination of blond and orange kind of stands out."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "That's sort of the point," he deadpanned, tired after a long day of running and annoyed they chose now of all times to criticize his choice of clothing.

"P-perhaps you could get something with less orange, Naruto-kun," Hinata suggested, agreeing with the idea but sad to see him give up an outfit like the one that she had given to him as a gift a year into their stay at the academy after hearing the boy proclaim his love of all things orange and seeing his at-the-time poor selection of clothes. At the time, she had been unable to foresee that his clothes selection would essentially die and become composed entirely of copies of the orange outfit she'd given him.

Turning a hurt look towards the girl, the boy pouted. "You too, Hinata-chan?" he asked, bottom lip quivering and eyes looking as though they would tear up at any moment.

"Oh cut that shit out," Tsunade grumbled, smacking the boy in the back of the head and causing him to lose the teary-eyed look for one of annoyance again. "You're going to get new clothes and you're going to like it."

"I'd like to see you make me, you senile old woman," the boy growled in defiance.

Tsunade smirked. "You'll do it, or I'll knock you out and let Shizune and Hinata play dress-up with you. What do you think Hinata, would Haruno-pink look good on him?"

Hinata nearly choked on her suppressed laughter, face turning red not from embarrassment but from the effort of holding in her amusement. Naruto eyed her suspiciously before sending Tsunade another glare. "Fine, damnit. As long as I can have some orange."

Deciding that was about as good as she was going to get out of the boy, Tsunade nodded and the team set off in search of a clothing store open at that hour. Much to their surprise, what they found was a store near the hotels selling battle attire that stayed open until early in the mornings—apparently they were accustomed to ninja coming into town at odd hours and needing either new outfits or repairs to current outfits. The building was only one story tall, with dark gray brick facing and a picture of a large, blueish-gray dog on a sign above the door. Beside the door, a life-sized statue of a dog of the same breed sat, a kunai in its mouth and its head tilted as though to offer the weapon to those walking by. Walking inside, they were greeted by a man who looked to be in his early forties, with graying black hair and a muscular build. By the way he moved, the four ninja could tell that he was a retired shinobi and Tsunade guessed he had served in the last great war.

"Evenin'," he greeted them from behind his counter, turning his eyes towards Team Hokage and nearly flinching visibly when he noticed what appeared to be a child-sized clone of Yondaime Hokage dressed in orange in their midst. "Name's Dane. Can I help you folks find anything?"

Tsunade nodded, waving towards Naruto. "This one needs some new clothes. Preferably something less conspicuous."

Dane nodded, stepping out from behind the counter and after looking Naruto up and down for a moment, headed through the racks and shelves of clothes towards the middle of the store. "Any preferences? Armored, weighted, type of cloth?"

"Cotton with leather padding with light chain-mail lining if you have it," Shizune answered, seeing that Naruto had merely shrugged at the man's question. "It needs to have pockets or loops for scrolls and a few hidden pockets."

Moving a few shelves down from where he'd been looking through his stock, Dane picked a few items off the shelves and handed them to the blond. "Go try that on," he said, pointing towards a dressing room. The boy complied, coming out a moment later. He wore long black pants with cargo pockets and scroll loops on the side and a black jacket with orange paneling along the bottom, up the sides, and along the outer part of the sleeves. "Well, how's it fit?"

Naruto shrugged. "Not bad, but the pants are a little long and I'd like a looser jacket if you have one," he answered.

Switching out the jacket for another a size larger, Dane handed it to the boy who shrugged it on and began to get a feel for it. "If you'll give me the pants back, I can alter them in about five minutes," he suggested. Nodding, Naruto began pulling his pants off and had them halfway down before realizing he was doing so in front of an audience. The boy pulled them back up and ducked back into the changing room, to a chorus of laughter from the adults and a massive blush from Hinata. He returned a moment later and handed the pants back to the tailor, blushing all the while. "So, anything else you folks need?" Dane asked around his grin.

"Some new sandals, these are getting kind of worn out," Naruto answered, to which the retired shinobi pointed towards a shelf a few feet away labeled 'Footwear.'

Turning to survey the rest of her group, Tsunade rolled her eyes and poked at a hole visible in the sleeve of Hinata's jacket. "I think you could use a new jacket too, young lady."

Looking the girl over to get a guess towards her size, Dane led the group a few shelves back towards the counter and began poking through a rack. Occasionally, he would pause to look towards Hinata, frown or shake his head, and continue his search. After a few moments, he pulled out a thin jacket and handed it to the young Hyuuga. "Try that on."

Nodding, Hinata shrugged off her old jacket and pulled on the new one, which was a light indigo color with darker purple sleeves. It was a little heavy, but she reasoned that it would be if it were armored similarly to Naruto's. The jacket was comfortable, if a little long at the moment. "It looks good on you," Tsunade commented, causing the girl to blush and mumble her thanks. Seeing that she agreed with it, Tsunade turned towards Dane. "I think that's everything."

Nodding, he waved towards the store. "Well, look around and see if anything catches your eye. I'll go take these pants up and I'll call you when they're done."

Naruto rejoined the group a few minutes after Dane left to alter his pants, a new pair of sandals held between two fingers and a set of fingerless gloves. Seeing Tsunade look at the gloves oddly, Naruto shrugged. "I don't scar and it's hard for me to build calluses. These have armored knuckles and a metal plate over the back of the hand," he explained. "It's either this or bandages."

Nodding, Tsunade walked back to where Naruto had gotten the gloves and got a similar pair for Hinata, which the girl would need to keep from damaging her hands if she were going to learn Tsunade's super-strength technique. In addition to the gloves, she picked up a pair of dark gray flack-vests similar to those worn by chuunin and jonin. Walking back towards the group, a shelf caught her eye and brought her up short. Grinning, she grabbed one of the blank hitai-ate off the shelf and walked back to the group just as Dane called announced that he was done. "I think this is it," Tsunade told him, waving towards their selections before handing him the blank hitai-ate. "You engrave these here?" she asked, getting a nod in response.

"Anything special you want on it, or did you just want copies of the current ones?"

"This," she answered, drawing out the kanji for jiei on the pad he provided.

Nodding, he tucked the notepad away and rung up the total. "I assume you wanted four of these?" he asked, motioning towards the headband. Getting a nod from the woman, he asked, "Any preferences?"

"Red for myself, black for these three," Tsunade answered, already pulling out the appropriate sum for the total, along with a large tip. "I'd appreciate it if you could forget we were here should anyone ask."

Sticking the money into the register, Dane nodded again. "Sure thing, hime. Come by in the morning some time, I should have these done by then," he said, tossing Naruto his new pants and chuunin vest before moving off to get some more blank headbands while the trio of kunoichi waited for the blond boy to run back to the dressing room and change, Hinata slipping on her own new vest over her jacket.

While Naruto was getting dressed, Tsunade turned back towards Dane. "Think you could get us three copies of that and another jacket like this one by that time?" she asked, motioning towards Hinata's new jacket.

"Sure thing," he answered, pocketing the headbands he would be using and moving back through the racks while the blond rejoined his companions. He couldn't help but notice the large hat adorned with the kanji for fire in red hanging down Tsunade's back as the woman turned to leave. "I almost feel sorry for the bastards that decided to piss off _that_ Hokage," he murmured, turning back to his work as the bell over his door chimed, signaling the quartet's departure.

The group made their way back across the street and down a few blocks to a hotel. Shizune rang the bell on the counter, attracting the attention of an old man who had been lounging behind a half-closed door behind the counter, a suspiciously orange book in his hands. Pocketing the book, the old man opened the door and stepped up to the counter. Taking one look at the group of ninjas, he asked, "How many rooms?"

"One room, two beds," Shizune answered, accepting the key the old man handed to them.

"You can pay when you check out," he said, before asking, "Need anything else?" Getting a collective 'no,' he nodded and went back into the lounge area behind the desk to finish his book.

"That guy was kind of rude," Naruto noted as they made their way towards the ground floor room they'd been given.

"Not really," Shizune explained. "If he's an experienced concierge then he knows how to handle ninja clients: ask no more questions than necessary, don't ask how long we'll be staying, try not to look at us too closely, and we'll pay when we leave. If we have to leave in a hurry, we'll send money by mail at a later date."

"Some of that is kind of dumb. Why shouldn't they ask how long we'll be here, and why not look too closely?"

It was Tsunade who answered this time. "Because most ninja don't know how long we'll be here and even if we did we don't want to tell someone who either could be an enemy or coerced to work for an enemy any more details about our operations than necessary. Not studying us too closely ties into that. It makes us more forgettable, just another face in the crowd. A ninja face, sure, but enough of us pass through that it's easy to get us confused if you don't pay attention to the details. That, and there are techniques, such as those used by the Yamanaka, that can allow a person to either overshadow—possess, if you will—another's mind or simply peruse their memories until they get what they're looking for. If they're not looking at us often it makes it harder to recall what we looked like and harder for anyone using those techniques to identify us."

Naruto nodded in understanding as they entered their room. "Doesn't help against cameras," he pointed out.

"True, but that's an argument for another time," Tsunade said before throwing herself down onto one of the beds as Shizune locked the door. "Hinata, you can sleep with me. Shizune, you get the brat."

"I'm not a brat!" Naruto argued. "And I could just sleep on the floor. I have a sleeping bag."

"I'm ok with sleeping with sharing a bed with Naruto," Shizune grinned, winking at Hinata, causing the younger girl to blush.

"Good," Tsunade smirked up at the ceiling, hearing the teasing in her first apprentice's voice and deciding to play along. "I don't quite trust Naruto-kun with our innocent little Hinata-chan."

"HEY! I'm not a pervert like Ero-sennin," Naruto protested, loudly, blushing nearly as much as Hinata.

Shizune ignored the blond's outburst. "I don't know sensei, I think it's Hinata-chan we shouldn't trust with our Naruto-kun. I don't know if he'd make it through the night with his virtue intact."

It was at that point that Hinata drew the attention of her three team-mates as a high-pitched squeak forced its way from her mouth as her eyes rolled back in her head and she fell down in a dead faint. Naruto caught her just before she hit the ground and eased her onto Tsunade's bed, after pulling back the sheets. "See what you did? I think she hit her nose on the floor too, it's bleeding," he said, wiping away the trickle of blood. "Dumb girls," the blond grumbled quietly as he pulled off Hinata's sandals and pulled the sheets over her still-dressed form, earning looks of approval at his actions from both of the 'dumb girls' in question.

Shizune pulled off the thin jacket she normally wore and unstrapped the senbon launcher from her arm, setting it within grabbing distance of the bed. Pulling off her pants and weapon holsters, she was left in a mesh undershirt and a set of form-fitting boxer-briefs. She crawled into the bed and smirked at Naruto. "Coming Naruto-kun? I promise not to bite," she said, and unable to help herself, added "unless you ask me to," through her giggling.

"Oh, that's right, laugh it up. I'll get you both back somehow," the boy grumbled, blushing but pulled off his pants and jacket and hopped onto the far side of the bed from Shizune, hugging the edge. With a yawn, he passed out almost immediately.

The next morning, Naruto woke feeling safer and more comfortable than he'd ever felt on waking in Konoha. So it was that the blond rolled over and buried his head into the oddly nice-smelling pillow that had somehow moved during the night, going back to sleep. His pillow giggled, smiling and running a hand through his hair slowly, drawing something approaching a contented purr from the boy, which caused her to giggle again. "Damn I need a camera," Tsunade grumbled from across the room, sitting up in bed and taking in her morning cup of coffee while she watched Shizune continue to play with Naruto's hair. "You should stop that," she warned.

Shizune raised an eyebrow and turned her head just enough to regard her sensei. "Why's that?" she asked quietly, hoping not to wake the blond. She felt him stir, but he settled when she ran her hand through his hair again.

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "You'll spoil him, that's why. Besides, I don't think Hinata would ever forgive you if you took away her Naruto-kun."

"I'm not a cradle robber," Shizune huffed in irritation. This time, the blond with his head buried firmly between her breasts did wake, yawning and stretching out as Shizune released him. Opening his eyes, he blinked sleepily and focused on Shizune's grinning face.

"What?" he asked around another yawn, which drew another giggle from the older girl. He blinked again before becoming fully cognizant of his surroundings and their current state of undress. "I didn't do anything!" he immediately denied, scrambling from the bed, causing both of the awake kunoichi to double over in laughter and waking Hinata up in the process.

The younger kunoichi sat up in bed beside Tsunade, stretching her hands over her head and slitting her eyes open to look around. Spotting Naruto standing nearly in front of her clad in nothing but his boxers and a t-shirt, she let out a startled 'eep!' and dived back under the covers, earning more laughter from the older kunoichi and a confused glance from Naruto as he decided that he was no longer the center of attention and could go shower in peace. Once she'd confirmed that Naruto had left the bedroom, she peeked out from under the covers before pulling them back down and sitting up. Looking down, she took in the fact that she was still dressed in her clothes from the previous night. "Oh," the murmured, embarrassment apparent on her face.

Deciding to get in some teasing while Naruto was in the shower, Tsunade shifted her eyes to the side, towards Hinata. Taking a sip from her coffee, she set the cup down and fought to keep a straight face. "I didn't know you were such a pervert Hinata-chan. Maybe I should give Sandaime's Icha Icha collection to you instead of just burning it..."

Hinata shook her head in denial, but couldn't voice her innocence before Shizune picked up where her sensei left off. "You know, Naruto-kun is in the shower right now. Naked."

The tell-tale sight of bulging veins around Hinata's eyes indicated her unconscious activation of the Byakugan, despite still attempting to proclaim her innocence. Any protests she may have been able to give here stilled as her vision penetrated the wall dividing the bedroom from the shower and a tiny giggle escaped her lips. Finally, she nodded. "Only for Naruto-kun," she admitted quietly, not even bothering to deny the truth any more. Several _long_ minutes of idle chat later, Naruto exited the shower and Hinata flew by him into the bathroom, slamming and locking the door behind her.

Looking between the door and the two smirking kunoichi, Naruto shrugged. "When you've got to go, you've got to go," he snickered, though wasn't sure that was the entire reason for the older women's ensuing laughter.

It was nearly nine that morning before everyone was ready to leave the hotel. Tsunade paid the clerk and the team walked up the street to what they'd come to understand was _The Great Dane_ ninja outfitting store, despite it not being labeled that outright. The bell rang over their heads, drawing the attention of who Tsunade assumed was the store's owner.

Dane looked up from his counter and waved the group over, pulling out a package wrapped in brown paper from under the counter and setting four hitai-ate on top of it. As Tsunade started to pull out her purse, Dane waved her off. "Naw, this one's on the house, and we'll just say you owe me one."

Nodding, Tsunade pulled out a storage scroll and sealed away the brown parcel and pocketed the hitai-ate. "Thanks again," she said before turning back towards her team. "Let's go."

Once they were outside of town, Naruto could no longer contain his curiosity. "So what was in the package?"

"Spare sets of clothes for you, Naruto-kun," Shizune answered.

Digging into her pocket, Tsunade handed out the hitai-ate, tying her own around her neck and leaving it to hang there. "Put those on."

Shizune tied hers around her forehead, pulling her bangs out of her eyes, while Hinata replaced her old hitai-ate around her neck with the new one. Glancing down at the new hitai-ate in his hand, Naruto frowned before pulling the one Iruka had given him off and replacing it with the new one. He placed the old hitai-ate inside one of the pockets of his vest before turning to Tsunade. "Why 'jiei' on these things?"

"Do you know what the word means?" Tsunade asked.

Naruto shook his head and Shizune took that as her cue to explain. "It means 'independent.' It can also mean 'self-employed' and 'bodyguard.' A jieitai is a self-defense force. A jieichou is a captain of the guard. Essentially, we're advertising, which is what the hitai-ate is meant to do in the first place. Aside from the practical purposes, most ninja wouldn't even wear them unless they were forced to. I usually only wore mine outside of Konoha when we were on missions. It's mandatory in most villages for ninja of that village to wear their hitai-ate outside the village or when on duty, so that customers or potential customers can see that village's ninja and get a look at the services—in this case the quality of ninja—that are being offered. Foreign ninja are required to wear a hitai-ate inside the walls of allied villages at all times when outdoors, mainly so people have an easier time keeping track of them."

"So... we're advertising?" Naruto asked.

Tsunade nodded. "Yes. Everywhere we go, we'll be offering an alternative to requesting missions from one of the major villages. If our prices are reasonable, word will spread quickly. Mostly, D-ranked missions are only assigned within village walls, so we'll only be offered C or above. For a group of wandering ninja, that will probably consist mostly of escort missions or dealing with bandits or thieves."

"Unless we get lucky and something major happens and we can resolve it successfully. That will let everyone know that we can be relied upon for higher level missions," Shizune elaborated, already warming up to the idea of teaching.

"Are.. are we supposed to approach town officials and offer our services?" Hinata asked, bringing the team's attention to her.

Scratching her chin in thought, Tsunade nodded. "That would be a good idea. We could send someone out to meet with whatever town elders there are and see if they have anything we could take care of."

"By 'we' you mean 'me,'" Shizune mumbled. "We should discuss a training regimen for you two, since we've got some time to kill this morning before we start running again. If we walk half the day and run the other half, we should make it to the port by tomorrow night, the morning of the day after at the latest. After that, it's about a week's cruise down to our clients, if not more depending on the weather."

Tsunade nodded her agreement. "We'll start with chakra training in the morning. The evening run will count as half of your physical training, and you'll follow it up with other exercises once we make camp for the night."

"Hinata, why don't you start by demonstrating one of the chakra-control exercises you mentioned yesterday for Naruto-kun," Shizune suggested.

Nodding, Hinata pulled out her canteen and waited until she knew she had Naruto's attention before pouring a bit onto her arm. Instead of rolling off her arm onto the ground, the water stayed in a mass where it had landed. After a moment, it spread out, seeming to disappear entirely. Hinata reached out and ran her finger down Naruto's arm, leaving a small trail of moisture. Bringing up her other hand, she collected the moisture she had left on the blond's arm at the tip of her fingertip. The small bead of water quickly rolled up her finger, along her arm and under her shirt. On her opposite arm, the water had collected in her palm. After a moment, the bead of water reappeared from under her shirt, rolled down her arm, and joined the rest. "See?" she asked before drinking the water collected in her palm.

Naruto snickered. "That was cool... but kind of gross," he said, causing Hinata to blush. After a moment, he reached out and ran his hand down her arm where he was sure the water had been, causing her to stumble and her blush to deepen. "It's dry."

"She explained how it works yesterday," Shizune pointed out. "That's the point of the exercise: to handle water without getting wet. You can do it with any liquid that isn't chakra-infused and being controlled by someone else and a few solids like sand or dust. It's kind of a combination of all three of the exercises you already know. The precision required for leaf floating to control a small object over part of the body, the ability to stick to something without breaking it or repelling it—or cause something to stick to you, in this case—from tree-climbing, and the control from water-walking to learn how to keep up a constant flow of chakra but be able to vary it on an unconscious level when the situation calls for it. Get it?"

Naruto nodded. "I think so."

"Well, what are you waiting for? Get to it, brat," Tsunade ordered, reaching over to smack the boy lightly on the back of the head.

Naruto ducked her hand and stuck his tongue out, but pulled out his canteen and poured a bit of water onto his arm while trying to catch it with chakra. The water rolled off his arm and onto the ground. "Crap," he murmured, wiping his arm off and trying again, pumping more chakra into his attempt. The water ran off his arm again. "Crap," he cursed, again wiping off his arm. His third try, he pulled out enough chakra that it became visible on his arm. Pouring water over it he smiled when, instead of soaking his arm it rolled off without touching it. "Sweet!"

The trio of women watching all shared astonished looks. They had known the boy could be a fast learner when he put his mind to something, but catching onto something this quickly was nearly unheard of. "Naruto-kun, it's better to leave the leftover water on your arm and try to manipulate it in smaller quantities if you can not get it to stick when you pour it. Try to gather it all to one point," Hinata advised, watching the blond as he nodded and started to try again.

"Wait a minute Naruto," Tsunade called, stopping the boy. "Why aren't you using kage bunshin for this?"

"Huh? What about it?"

"You know that anything a kage bunshin learns in its life time gets passed on to you once it disperses, right?" Shizune asked, getting a nod from the boy. "That applies to _anything_ learned. If you were to create a dozen kage bunshin and have them work on something for two hours, as long as they all did things slightly differently each time, then you would have effectively done a full day's worth of work in two hours."

"Force multiplier," Hinata added.

"There's that too," Shizune agreed. "Now keep in mind that if you have a hundred kage bunshin working on exactly the same thing exactly the same way, you won't learn it any faster than if you had learned it without them. Any breakthrough you had would come from one of them doing something differently. Doing that with an already learned skill _can_ help by improving your familiarity with the skill, building up your mastery of that skill, but it won't accelerate your initial learning pace any. If you're going to use a large group of kage bunshin, you should have each of them arrange to try a different approach to the same subject. Understand?"

Naruto nodded. "I think so," he said, bringing his hands up into the familiar seal for kage bunshin. Everyone there felt the chakra gather and release, but when there was no tell-tale poof of smoke and a clone, they looked around in confusion. A rustle of leaves from the trees above caused them to look up... and gape in awe and a little horror. Above the team was a veritable sea of orange-and-black clad blonds lining every branch of every tree within sight, dividing themselves up into groups and spreading out across the area.

"That's..." Tsunade murmured.

Shizune nodded. "Impossible."

Hinata's smirk was answer enough to their amazement. "I never had any doubts," she said quietly.

"Naruto-kun, just how many of those did you make?" Shizune asked, voice raising in near panic.

Naruto shrugged. "I dunno. I used about as much chakra as it takes to summon Gamabunta, so probably a thousand or so."

After a moment of thought, Tsunade asked, "Do you think you could do that again?"

"Yeah, once or twice. After that I might have to take a break and eat something," he answered, then began attempting what he was already calling the water repelling exercise.

And in the middle of a dry afternoon, with not a cloud in the sky, it began to rain across nearly a kilometer of land. Looking up into the sky, Hinata giggled. "Kitsune no Yomeiri."

* * *

Author's** Notes:** Had some trouble deciding on a title for this chapter. I couldn't decide if I wanted to change chapter one's title to 'Team Hokage' and come up with something else for this, but I decided to leave it as-is.

'Kitsune no Yomeiri' translates literally into 'Foxes's Wedding,' which is a bit of Japanese folklore that refers to a rain shower from a partly clear sky during the day—in other words, a sunshower. The trickster-getting-married during a sunshower bit of folklore is pretty widespread and used worldwide, apparently.

If you haven't read the challenge issued by Perfect Lionheart to see what you should expect of this story, you should. This is going to be predominantly a Naruto/Hinata story, but I am sorely tempted to make it a harem later. No yaoi. At all. Ever. ...Unless in reference to Sasuke, Orochimaru, or Konohamaru's Oiroke variation.

If you haven't guessed what I'm going for yet, I'll go ahead and lay out my general plan for the next few chapters. I'll be having Team Hokage go through a few of the filler episodes first, do lots of training during the timeskip period, and occasionally pick up a few things from post-timeskip. I haven't seen the filler episodes and I don't particularly care about their order of use here either, since they were filler anyway so they're going to show up in the order most conducive to urging this story forward plot-wise. As for Shippuden, I don't like most of it so I'll only be touching on the things I like. For instance, Akatsuki vs Gaara and Chiyo's sacrifice will make an appearance for sure. The Konoha-specific stuff from the manga and anime will be skipped for the most part, maybe referenced occasionally.

What I am _not_ going to do is turn this into a re-write of Shippuden. In fact, about half of what I see as this story's lifetime is going to be during the timeskip. As I said, I'll be referencing it piecemeal, but for the most part it will cease to exist as far as this universe is concerned. Naruto will _not_ go all mopey over Sakura any time soon. Naruto will _not_ be going after Sasuke any time soon, if at all, as Sasuke will cease to be the driving force in his life motivating him to become stronger very soon. I will _not_ switch focus from Team Hokage for any more than a chapter or two at a time (I prefer to stick with the main cast and give side-characters/events half-chapters most of the time) other than to illustrate what is going on around Team Hokage in reaction to their actions and I will damn sure not be renaming 'Naruto' as _Sasuke_ which seems to be what Kishimoto had in mind with the last few chapters.

As for the Naruto movies, I will consider each on an individual basis. The first movie is making it into this story for sure, but reworked to function with Team Hokage as opposed to Team 7.


	3. Snake in the Grass

**The Missing Hokage**

**03: Snake in the Grass**

* * *

Sun set on the third day, and with it the council set their secondary plan into motion. There had been no sign of Uzumaki inside of Konoha in two days, and while it seemed possible, most of those involved felt it would be far too convenient if the Kyuubi-brat had died in the fire that burned his apartment complex to the ground. The problem with assigning a high-level assassination became apparent when the messenger they sent to find either a hunter-nin or ANBU returned with news that all of Konoha's highest ranked shinobi were out on missions and none of them were due back for at least a week. And forcing Jiraiya to assassinate his own student, while an amusing idea, was out of the question.

Danzou's suggestion to use Root was dismissed due to the probability of a team being spotted and thus incurring the wrath of an angry Hokage. The mission would have to be carried out with the utmost precision, strictly in-and-out with no witnesses. Were Tsunade to learn of Konoha's involvement, she would refuse to return. The reason at least a four-person team of Root ANBU would be required as opposed to a single ANBU or hunter-nin lie with Danzou and his paranoia of one of his tools turning against its master. To keep this from happening, all Root ninja were kept purposefully weaker than normal shinobi, all of them under a suggestive genjutsu to give them an aversion to too much training.

After several long minutes of silent thought on the subject and looking over the list of active shinobi currently inside the village, Koharu spoke hesitantly. "There is one person in Konoha aside from ANBU or hunter-nin that specializes in low-profile assassinations."

Glancing down at the list, Danzou frowned. "No. Absolutely not. I refuse to deal with _that woman_ and her eccentricities."

Looking between his old teammate and the crippled war-hawk, Homura pondered the matter for a moment before a small smile slowly spread across his face. "No, Danzou, I must agree with Koharu on her suggestion. We won't have to put up with her for any longer than it takes to assign the mission and the benefits outweigh the short-term sacrifice."

"Not to mention that sending one of the thorns in Konoha's side to deal with the other has a certain sweet irony about it," Koharu smirked. "And as a bonus, if she fails and the Kyuubi-brat kills her, nothing of value to us is lost. It's a nearly perfect win-win scenario. The only way it could get any better would be if they both managed to kill each other."

Giving the idea a moment of consideration, Danzou nodded slowly, accepting their points as an idea occurred to him. "And if they do not, then we can take advantage of the other's weakened state and finish the job," he said. Looking towards the messenger, who was a Root ANBU himself, he nodded. "Summon her. When she leaves, shadow her. Do not let her become aware of your presence. Should she fail to kill the Kyuubi-brat, finish the job. And should she succeed, eliminate her."

"Hai, Danzou-sama," the messenger saluted, disappearing in a cloud of smoke to complete his assigned task.

Nearly fifteen minutes later, a kunoichi of medium height pushed open the door to the council chamber, her open brown trench-coat showing more skin than was acceptable by most standards through her fishnet-armor body suit. Her dark violet hair was pulled back into a spiked pony-tail and as her lips pulled the last ball of dango off the stick she'd brought in with her, she flicked it in the general direction of Danzou. "You had better have a damn good excuse for pulling me away from my meal," she growled.

"Mitarashi Anko," Koharu snapped, cutting Danzou off before he lost his temper. "We have a mission for you."

"What sort of mission?"

"Assassination," answered Homura.

"Who's the target?" she asked, somewhat more interested. Assassination missions were always fun, like her own personal game of hide-and-go-kill-someone.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Danzou answered, sliding a folder containing the boy's full profile across their table to Anko.

Hearing that name, Anko raised an eyebrow. _'So, this is it huh? Guess they finally decided to get rid of the kid. Let's see where this goes,'_ she thought. Outwardly, she showed no sign of her thoughts on the matter. "The Kyuubi-brat eh?" she asked nonchalantly, opening the file and looking it over to see what they had to say about the boy. "Says here he made chuunin," she mused aloud, trying to get a clearer picture of the situation. "Didn't think he was promoted after the last exam."

"He wasn't. Tsunade promoted him on her own authority without approval two days ago," Koharu pointed out.

Reading further down, Anko found something that actually surprised her. "'Released from the service of Konohagakure no Sato and Hi no Kuni and from all duties and obligations to the above?'" she read directly from the file. "What the hell?"

Homura snorted. "Tsunade's idea of a joke."

Anko continued reading. "'Pardoned for all crimes against Konohagakure no Sato and Hi no Kuni.' ...So why the hell am I being sent out? Are these orders even legal?"

Danzou frowned, shooting a dirty look towards Koharu and Homura, his expression screaming 'I told you so.' "Yes, they are legal and as you know, you may not refuse a mission. As for why we are ordering this, that is on a need-to-know basis—"

"Yeah, yeah, 'and I don't need to know.' Fucking blowhard," she said, mumbling the last part just loud enough for all three of them to hear. "Fine. As long as the pay's good, I'm in. But just so you know, I'm doing this under protest. I want that on the record, too."

Koharu nodded in exasperation. "It will be noted. Now, I believe you have a mission to carry out. While we understand that it may take some time to track the target down, we request this mission be carried out with utmost haste. Also, the target's companions must not become aware of your presence. I warn you, there is a high probability that there is a Hyuuga with them."

Anko nodded. "That makes tracking them easier and I know how to deal with Hyuuga, so it won't be a problem." That said, she left the council chamber, slamming the door behind her.

Danzou groaned, sinking deeper into his seat and bringing his single arm up to rub at his temples in an attempt at warding away his impending headache. "Gods, I hate that woman."

* * *

Anko finished packing what she felt she would need for this mission an sealed it all into a scroll, which she then pocketed. Pulling a laminated map book of the elemental nations down from a shelf, she sat down at her kitchen table and thumbed through its pages until she found the overall map for Fire Country. _'If I'm right, counting today it's been two, three days tops. They could have crossed any of our borders by now if they were moving fast, but with the kid with them I doubt they're hauling ass. Big-breasted hag likes to gamble, but with Shizune, the brat, and a Hyuuga to keep her in line she's probably being forced to avoid the gambling towns, or at least the parlors and casinos. With the Hyuuga there, there's no way they'll be ballsy enough to head up towards Kumo, and the kid looks too much like Yondaime for them to head towards Iwa.'_

Anko paused in her thoughts to review the boy's file again. After a moment of looking it over, she looked back to the map. _'Naruto knows those Suna kids, but we're still on shaky ground with them. However, his mission reports from when he was on Scarecrow's team show the old man sent them out to Wave where they kicked some serious ass. And, coincidentally enough, Wave named their new bridge the _Great Naruto Bridge_. Real damn subtle. Guess they liked the kid, which makes that the most likely place they'd go to lay low until they can get their heads out of their asses and come up with a plan more complex than 'run around looking for paying work and hope we don't run into anyone from Konoha.' Closest town between here and there is... Otafuku Gai. It's risky, heading straight there. I could lose a day or two if I don't pick anything up within the first few hours. But if I'm right, I'll shave off over a day's travel by not dicking around following a false trail.'_

After giving the matter some thought, Anko closed her map and put it in the pocket opposite her storage scroll. Standing, she bit her thumb and started sealing before slamming her hands palms down on the ground. The smoke of the summoning cleared, to reveal a thin black snake with a triangular head, roughly two feet long. "Come on up here," she said, holding out her hand to the animal. It complied, crawling its way up her sleeve and coming out through her collar, draping itself around her neck so its head hung over her left shoulder and could rotate far enough to see around the woman. The kunoichi smirked. _'The Hyuuga can see chakra, but most of my snakes can see heat. THAT's how you take care of that bullshit.'_

"Well, let's go," she said, receiving a nod in answer as she left her apartment and made her way into the administration tower. She was stopped at the doors to the Hokage's office.

"Sorry Mitarashi, we think there was a bit of theft recently. Somebody made off with half our funds from the treasury and the entire contents of the Hokage's personal library. We found what looked like an official document signed and stamped by Hokage-sama releasing the items and money to herself, but without her here to verify it we can not be sure."

Anko nodded. "Whatever, just let me in. I'm on official business. I need to get some scents. You can watch if you want."

While the chuunin guard did not know her personally, he did know enough of her reputation to know that if she were there on 'official business' and it required getting a scent, then she was probably assigned to an assassination mission. "Sure," he agreed, opening the door for her and stepping inside with her.

"Do your thing," Anko told her summon.

After several minutes of walking around the office and letting the animal inspect the area, it turned its head towards her. "Several scents," it said, its voice surprisingly clear and, for lack of a better term, normal-sounding. It did not have the hissing lisp most people would associate with a snake if it could talk. "Two strong," it continued. "Both female. One old, one young. The old one likes sake... and napping in the office."

"Tsunade," Anko nodded.

"The younger one smells of... domesticated swine. Does she have a pet pig?"

"Yeah," Anko confirmed. "That'd be Shizune. Anything else stand out?"

The snake nodded, its tongue flicking out to taste the air occasionally. "Many newer scents, but only a few stand out. A man of two scents, he smells strongly of dog."

"Kakashi, sounds like. You might be getting the second scent off his Sharingan. Ignore him."

Tongue flicking out again, it continued. "An older man, as old as the sake-woman. Likes his sake too. Smells of toads, women, and paper."

"Jiraiya, ignore it. But you're looking for someone else that probably smells of toad."

"A boy, young, smells faintly of toad and strongly of ...fox. The Kyuubi-child?" it asked, its tone somewhat more respectful referring to the fox's container. After a moment, it added, "He carries with him an object of great power, I taste its presence in the air."

"Yeah, that's the one. Naruto," Anko nodded, turning to leave the room. "No idea what he's got with him." The snake's next words brought her up short for a moment.

"Wait, there is one more. A girl... of the white eyes. She smells of lavender and strongly of the Kyuubi-child."

Anko smirked as she left the office. "That's probably our Hyuuga. Keep an... a tongue, I suppose, out for her too. You got the four I want?"

"Yes."

Anko left the office and made her way to the south gate, having decided to circle the village clockwise to see if she could get a scent trail and then leave towards the east in the hope of cutting them off if they changed course. And if they had gone another direction, Anko would know where to start when she got back. As she circled from the south gate towards the west, her companion kept silent. It was at the north gate that the snake perked up.

"Two trails for the Kyuubi-child and his mate," the snake noted, causing Anko to stumble and turn her head to regard the animal on her shoulder.

"'Mate?' What the hell do you mean, 'mate?'"

The snake tilted its head to the left, which Anko interpreted as a shrug from something that didn't possess the shoulders for such an action. "She smells strongly of him, so I had assumed... I am mistaken?"

"Probably," Anko confirmed. "Maybe she's just wearing something of his."

The snake nodded. "It is possible," it conceded the point before continuing with its observations. "One of the trails is perhaps a day older. They came into the village with... A boy with a dog, a woman smelling faintly of cigarettes, and ...a hive."

"Team 8 and Kurenai. Ignore it."

Another tongue flick and the snake continued. "The newer trail is the group of four. They go north."

With that, Anko took off at a dead run around the east side of the village. Taking to the trees, she found the east road from the village and began tree-jumping parallel to it, towards Otafuku Gai. It was twelve long hours of chakra-assisted leaping and running broken once an hour with a five minute breather that Anko spotted the lights of Otafuku Gai, just as the horizon was beginning to lighten. She slowed her pace as she neared the village, descending from the trees and taking to the road at a steady jog. Nearing the village' west gate, she turned her attention towards her summon momentarily. "Anything?" she asked and smirked when she got a nod.

"A much fresher trail leading in," it answered quietly.

A voice from the gate interrupted her conversation with the snake. "Who goes there?"

Stepping into the dim light provided by a pair or torches above the gate, Anko flicked the headband on her forehead, getting a nod from the gate guards. "Seen a group come through here in the past couple of days?" she asked, then went on to specify before they pissed her off with a smartassed answer. "Three girls and a boy, all ninja. The oldest kunoichi probably stood out," she said, bringing her hands to her bust and emphasizing the size difference between herself and the sannin.

The guard who had stopped her shook his head, but the other nodded slowly. "I think I saw them a couple of days ago. Blond woman, had a hat and a green outfit I think, ginormous boobs?" he asked, getting a nod from Anko.

"Thanks. Know if they've left town yet?"

The obvious pervert shook his head. "Not a clue, sorry lady."

Nodding her thanks, Anko made her way through the gates and into town, following the snake's unspoken directions as it turned its head one way or the other to indicate a direction the scent trail went. The trail led her into the hotel and shopping district and a familiar clothing store that had just opened. A bell rang as Anko pushed her way through the door. Looking up from his counter, Dane spotted the woman's leaf-printed hitai-ate and the obvious summon riding her shoulder. "Help you find something?" he asked.

Anko ignored him. "Well?"

"They were here twice," the snake spoke, turning its head this way and that, tongue tasting the air. "No more than half a day between visits. Two trails exiting the building."

"Follow the newer one," Anko ordered, leaving the store and causing Dane to frown. After giving the woman a moment to get far enough from his store front, the older ninja pulled out a sheet of paper and a pen and wrote out a short message.

_A snake follows you through the leaves_.

Cutting a length of thick orange string from a nearby spool with a kunai, Dane bit his thumb and began sealing. Clapping his hands together, the written seals appeared in midair and a cloud of smoke in front of him announced the arrival of his summon. The smoke cleared to reveal a tall blueish-gray dog, who turned his head to observe Dane. "You rarely summon us any more," he accused.

Dane rolled his eyes and tied the note to the dog's collar with the string. "Sorry Coe, but you know I got out of that business after the war."

"I assume you have a job for me," Coe asked.

"Yeah. Put that nose of yours to work for me, would you? You're looking for a group of four that came in here a couple of days ago. Three kunoichi and a young shinobi."

Coe nodded. "I have them. ...Why does the boy smell of fox? I was unaware of a fox-summoning contract."

Dane bit his lip in thought. "Considering who he was with, I may have an idea or two, but it's not important. Now, smell that bitch that just came in here? Should have a snake with her." The dog's lip curled and he nodded. "Good. Avoid her. Find out where that group went and get that message to them before she gets to them. If they went towards the port and took a boat, you may have to lay low if she gets on the same boat."

"Understood. Anything else?" Coe asked. Receiving a negative, the dog pushed his way out the door to the store and took off down the street, nose to the ground.

"Hope he makes it in time," the retired ninja mumbled, settling back on his chair behind his counter.

Outside, Anko and her summon followed the scent trail to the edge of town, pausing at the gates. "They travel east. The trail is much stronger, their pace has slowed."

Yawning Anko nodded in satisfaction. "Good, that gives me some time to sleep. You can pick this up again in six hours or so?" she asked. Getting a nod in reply, Anko made her way back across the roofs towards the shopping district, never noticing the blue dog running below her in the opposite direction stop in its run and turn its head towards her before putting his nose back to the ground and continuing on.

Anko dropped down to street level and walked towards the first hotel she spotted. Her companion's tongue tasted the air for a moment before it spoke. "They were here."

Smirking, Anko rang the bell for service. An old man came out from the back room, the corner of an orange book peeking out from one pocket. Taking one look at her, he turned back towards the rack of keys and pulled one off, tossed it to her and walked back into his back room. "Thanks," Anko called, heading to the ground floor room she had been assigned. Opening the door, she was disturbed by the strange rasping sound that came from her summon. "What? ...Are you laughing?" she asked, receiving a nod in answer.

"Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of humor. They spent the night here," the snake explained as Anko started undressing.

Kicking off her sandals, Anko pulled off her trench coat and flung it onto one of the beds and immediately sat in the other. Reaching up, she pulled the snake out from around her neck and lowered it to the floor. "Think you can keep watch for a few hours? I don't care if you sleep, so long as you do it by the door. Bite the shit out of anyone that comes in."

The snake made its way across the carpeted floor, stopping in a dim pool of light coming from under one of the room's curtained windows. "I will wake you should that happen," the snake agreed, curling up on itself and closing its eyes, the pits in its snout flaring occasionally as its heat-sensing organs worked unconsciously, ready to strike should anything warm and vaguely human-shaped come into its field of view. Yawning deeply, Anko buried herself under the covers and passed out. And across town, a blueish-gray great dane with a rolled up note tied to its collar sped out the east exit of Otafuku Gai, disappearing into the underbrush beside the road, its natural coloration causing it to vanish in the shadows of the forest.

* * *

It was the afternoon of their third day since leaving Konoha. After camping out in the forest last night, the group had decided to pick up the pace that day and had made it into Fire Country's northern port city before noon, where they then caught a ship bound for port in Nagi Island, and after that to Haha Island where they would then take a smaller boat north to Taro Island. Stuck on a slow-moving ship with nothing surrounding them but water, Naruto was bored, which he let everyone know—loudly.

Tsunade rolled her eyes while Shizune set Tonton down from her lap and began digging through her bag. "Well I'm sorry brat, but as I've told you before, we can't do much training here. We can't practice taijutsu up on deck without getting in the way of everyone working, and none of the rest of us have the chakra required to sustain a prolonged spar on top of the sea. And I'm not letting you make a swarm of kage bunshin to practice out on the water, it'll draw too much unwanted attention."

"I got it the first time you told me," the blond boy grumbled. "It doesn't change the fact that I'm bored."

A small poof of smoke from the direction of Shizune drew their attention there, and Tsunade's first apprentice tossed a book towards Naruto. "Start reading that," she said, passing a similar book to Hinata. "They're books on basic anatomy. This should tide you over until we get to shore, and you need to read this stuff before you can start learning medical jutsu anyway."

"Ah! Wait a minute," Tsunade called, grabbing the attention of the other three. "Before you get to that, there's something else I would like you to do. I should have done this as soon as you accepted my offer of apprenticeship, but with everything going on it slipped my mind."

"Tsunade-shishou, you mean," Shizune questioned, not wanting to ruin her sensei's surprise for her two subordinate-apprentices.

Tsunade nodded, biting her thumb and sealing. Slapping her hands down on the ground, she was obscured in smoke for a moment, which cleared shortly to reveal a dog-sized... slug. A slug holding a large scroll wrapped in one of its eye-stalks. "I present to you the Slug Summoning Contract."

Hinata gasped—summoning contracts, especially those of the sannin—were one of the most valuable tools in a ninja's arsenal. Naruto... was less than impressed. "It's a slug," he deadpanned. Taking the shocked looks and silence of the three kunoichi as an invitation to continue, he did so. "Besides, I've already got a contract with the toads. Is it even possible to have more than one contract?"

"Yes Naruto, it is," Shizune answered. "Some people have as many as three or four. And despite their appearance, the slug contract is a very useful one to have."

"Really?" Naruto asked, warming up to the idea. If it didn't mean giving up his contract with the toads, then having another summoning contract—even something as ugly as slugs—would be useful. "How so?"

Shizune nodded. "Well, they... uh.. there are a lot of them, and they can get pretty large. And umm," Shizune shot a frantic glance at her mentor, for once completely at a loss for how to answer the boy's questions.

Tsunade shot her first apprentice a dirty look. "You aren't helping my case, Apprentice," Tsunade grumbled. Turning her attention back towards Naruto, she growled out, "AND YOU! You should be grateful I'm offering you the chance to sign a contract as exclusive as this!"

"Well, I guess so," Naruto nodded. "So long as it won't cancel my contract with the toads, I'm fine with it. But you still haven't answered my question."

"Perhaps I should, Tsunade-sama?" the slug holding the scroll suggested. Getting a nod from Tsunade, the creature turned its unoccupied eye stalk towards Naruto. "I am sure you have seen Tsunade-sama summon and use us before, so you know that along with the toads, we are most useful against those holding the snake summoning contract. Slugs have a variety of uses in the field. We can be used to transport the wounded, we are somewhat more resilient against physical damage, and we have a variety of attacks such as spitting acid."

"Acid huh?" Naruto asked. "Sure, I'm in."

The slug lowered its eye stalk and handed the scroll to Tsunade, who opened it and held it out towards her new apprentices. "Sign in blood."

Naruto bit his thumb and signed quickly while Hinata pricked hers with a kunai and delicately scrawled her name. Tsunade rolled the scroll up and handed it back to the slug, who then disappeared in another small cloud of smoke. "So how do I know which I'm summoning?" Naruto asked, showing a surprising amount of insight and restraint by asking first instead of just attempting the jutsu.

Shizune looked clueless, though Tsunade had some idea of how the process was supposed to go. "I think that to summon a specific species if you have more than one contract, you concentrate on calling just that species. If you verbalize the jutsu, use their name. It's the way Jiraiya summons when he wants a specific toad most of the time."

"So then Namekuji and Gama kuchiyose no jutsu?" the blond asked. Getting a nod, be bit his thumb but was stopped before he could begin sealing.

"Wait a second Naruto," Shizune interrupted before turning towards Hinata. "Do you know the seals?" she asked, and seeing Hinata shake her head, told Naruto, "Go slow so she can watch, and call them out as you do them."

Naruto nodded and did so, biting his thumb again as it had long since stopped bleeding. Slapping his hands down on the deck beneath him, he pumped about as much chakra as he used to call Gamakichi into the jutsu. A small cloud of smoke erupted in front of the boy and when it cleared there sat a small slug in front of them. "Congratulations," it said, waving an eye stalk towards the boy.

"Heh, thanks," the boy said, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. A moment later, he bit his thumb and performed the jutsu again, this time summoning a toad. Nodding to himself, he looked them both over for a moment before grinning and biting his thumb again. Slapping his hands down on the deck produced another cloud of smoke... along with both another toad and a slug. "Cool!" he shouted, gaining astonished looks from those around him. Both of the summons were about half the size of the ones he had summoned before, but he had been expecting that since he had used the same amount of chakra that he'd used the first two times. "Thanks guys, you can go," he said, waving to the summons who seemed to collectively shrug before vanishing in a larger cloud of smoke.

Once the trio of kunoichi got over their shock, Tsunade shot Hinata a grin. "Your turn, Hinata-chan. Keep in mind that Naruto has been doing this for a while, so it's ok if you don't get it the first time. It takes a while to get a feel for the amount of chakra needed to summon each size class or age of creature."

Nodding, Hinata pricked her thumb with her kunai again and started sealing. She performed all of the seals correctly and slapped her hands down onto the deck as Naruto and Tsunade had done before her. A very small cloud of smoke announced the arrival of a summon. When it cleared, a slug slightly larger than an average garden slug turned its tiny eye stalks to observe its summoner. Hinata frowned, wondering if she'd performed the jutsu incorrectly. And as she had come to expect of him, Naruto threw off her self-doubts the same way he always did. "Wow! That's great Hinata-chan," he laughed, picking the small slug up. "I didn't get anything the first day I tried, and I was stuck summoning tadpoles for nearly a week."

Seeing that it didn't seem to be needed any longer, the slug disappeared from the boy's hand in a poof of smoke. "Well done, Hinata-chan," Tsunade congratulated at the same time as Shizune. "Why don't you work on that for a while before starting on the anatomy stuff?" she suggested.

"I've got a better idea," Shizune grinned, looking between Hinata and Naruto. "Even with his initial disadvantage, Naruto-kun is going to quickly surpass you as long as he keeps using kage bunshin to learn. So, I have a proposition... How about we share techniques? Naruto, you can teach Hinata kage bunshin and share what you know about it with us, since you have the most experience with it. Hinata, you could help him with his chakra control exercises and help us to better understand the Byakugan and the Hyuuga style. Eventually, your father is going to send someone for you, and when he does we should be ready for it. Well, what do you say?"

The pair gave the idea a moment of thought before Naruto shrugged. "Sure, I don't mind helping Hinata-chan out, and I really could use the help with my chakra control. I _could_ teach you the rasengan, but I don't know if I'm supposed to or not."

"We'll worry about that one later," Tsunade assured.

"I.. I would love to help Naruto-kun any way I can," Hinata agreed after assuring herself that the boy wasn't simply humoring her.

Naruto grinned, bringing his hands up and preparing to seal. "Ready?" he asked. Getting a nod from her, he slowly moved his fingers into the correct positions for each seal, finishing on the familiar cross-seal.

"Ano... I thought kage bunshin only required one seal?" Hinata asked as she and Naruto continued practicing.

The blond shook his head. "Nope. I just got tired of using so many at once."

"You know how to complete jutsu with less seals?" Shizune asked.

"Uh huh," Naruto nodded, then grinned at Hinata. "You slipped," he said, pointing out her incorrect seal.

"S-sorry."

Tsunade, following along with the lines of thought of the other two kunoichi asked, "When did you figure out how to do this?"

Naruto shrugged her question off, nearly sending him falling to the side as the ship hit a particularly large wave. "I dunno. What's the big deal about it anyway?"

"Naruto-kun," Hinata murmured, drawing his attention back to her. "That's a jonin-level skill," she pointed out, voicing the thoughts of the other two.

Shizune, as was becoming her habit, decided to elaborate. "Sealless, or partially-sealed jutsu is a high-level technique that takes years to master normally. About the only people I've ever heard of learning it that early are Yondaime, Kakashi, and Itachi."

Scratching the back of his head in embarrassment, Naruto laughed. "Eh, kage bunshin is supposed to be jonin-level too, but I do that all the time. I was just being lazy when I did that, I didn't think it was something important."

Tsunade sighed. "Naruto, nearly every innovation or invention made since the dawn of man has been due—either directly or indirectly—to laziness. Tools, the wheel, eating utensils—you name it and you can probably think of a way to attribute it to saving time, making something easier, or saving someone from doing a more labor or time intensive task if they did not have the tool or technique for the job. The next time you decide to be lazy and come up with something like this, let us know ok?"

* * *

It was after dark when a large blueish gray and black great dane sauntered tiredly into Fire Country's northern port city. Following the scent trail, Coe padded down the roads towards the docks. The scent trail he'd followed stopped at the side of one of the longer piers and he huffed, turning back towards the town. A flashing neon sign a short distance away drew his attention to a dock-side bar for sailors, called _The Bad Fox._ The dog smirked and loped lazily around to the back door.

Bringing a paw up, he scratched at the door and whined pitifully. He repeated this for a few moments before a pretty young girl opened the door and looked down, going instantly starry-eyed and nearly squealing in excitement at the 'cute doggy.' She shot a quick look back into the kitchen and winked at the dog, disappearing for a moment before returning with a pan of fried hamburger and a bowl filled with water, which she placed off to the side of the door. A voice from inside caused her to huff in annoyance and go back inside. Now along, Coe snickered and tucked into his meal. "Works every time," he laughed around a mouthful.

Finishing his meal, Coe made the short trip back over to the docks and sat down near a guardhouse. "God damn this is one boring job," a young man complained from within the small shack.

An older man's voice answered and Coe could hear the annoyance in his tone. "Just stay alert. Word has it, ships have been running afoul of trouble in the south. It could make its way up here."

"Yeah, but the next ship from down that way isn't due in until later tonight," the younger man pointed out. "Can't I just read or something until then?"

"No."

"Ah for fuck sake," the younger man groaned in boredom. After a moment he asked, "Where's the thing coming from anyway?"

The older hand sighed, coming to the realization that he would not be enjoying a nice, quiet night of doing nothing and getting paid for it. "Sea Country. That's where the trouble is. Comes up from there to Nagi Island then it'll berth here, resupply, and be out again on the same rout in the morning. If you're bitching about this job, just be thankful you don't have to do that one."

"Hey, you two!" a woman's voice called, startling Coe but not causing him to draw attention to himself. Whoever this woman was, she'd managed to sneak up on him, which did not bode well. A familiar scent drifted to his nose and Coe knew his luck had just run down the shitter. "I've got a couple of questions for you," Anko called, less loudly now that she was closer and had their attention.

"Yeah, what the hell do you want lady?" the younger guard asked, only to get slapped on the back of the head by the older man.

The old guard sighed, shaking his head. "Kids these days, got no respect and no damn common sense. I'm sorry about him miss. What would you ask of an old guard and a young guard?"

"Have you seen a group of four ninja leaving by this port in the last day or so?" she asked. "Three kunoichi and a young shinobi: a mis-proportioned blond, a black haired woman with a pet pig, a mousy little violet-haired girl, and a loudmouthed brat with blond hair and wearing lots of orange?"

"Nope, can't say that I have. Sorry. If they left through here, it was before our shift. I think I'd remember that group if I had seen them passing through," the older guard answered.

Sighing in frustration, Anko nodded. "Ok, then can you tell me where the ship leaving from that berth was headed?" she asked, pointing to the same pier Coe had followed the scents down a short while ago.

Checking his books, the older guard nodded. "Yep. She headed south out of here for Nagi Island and from there to Sea Country. Another ship bound for the same destination should be arriving later tonight. She leaves port tomorrow morning, around ten."

"Thanks," Anko nodded. "One last question: where can I get a drink and a room?"

The older man pointed back behind Anko, towards the partially hidden neon sign. "Bar up the road's got the best drinks on this side of town, good food too. There's a small inn beside it, got cheap rooms."

Turning towards the bar, Anko threw a wave over her shoulder. Once she was out of earshot, the younger guard finally opened his mouth again. "What was that about? And why'd you hit me?"

The older man sighed. "Son, I just saved your life. Show some appreciation."

"How do you figure that?"

"You see that thing hanging around her neck?" the older man asked.

The young guard shook his head. "No. What was it?"

The older man grinned. "Little black snake. Buggers are poisonous as all hell. That she has one as a pet should have been warning enough. You didn't see the headband did you?"

"Headband?"

"I'll take that as a no," the old guard nodded. "She's a ninja, kid. That snake was most likely a summon, and probably smarter than you are. From the look of it, she's had a hard couple of days on the road and is just itching for an excuse to stick a knife in somebody. You were volunteering. And while I don't like you, I don't particularly care to have to train a replacement either. No, kid, that is one lady you do not want to piss off."


	4. Fish Out of Water

**The Missing Hokage**

**04: Fish Out of Water**

* * *

Dawn of the fifth day, the fourth since Tsunade left, found a big blueish-gray and black dog sneaking onto a ship bound for Sea Country. Shortly thereafter, Mitarashi Anko woke up and found her way to the ship with her summoned snake after taking care of her morning routine. Making her way up to the ship's first mate, she asked, "Think you can get this boat moving within the hour?"

Turning to regard the woman, the first mate raised an eyebrow at her hitai-ate and the snake around her neck. "We'll have to talk to the captain, ma'am."

"That's fine," Anko agreed, following him.

They found the captain inside the navigation room, looking over his charts. He turned to regard the two who had interrupted him and shifted his attention to the kunoichi when his XO nodded his head in her direction. "She wants to know if we can cast off early, Captain."

Glancing back at his charts for a moment, the old captain gave the matter some thought before replying. "Well, this is a cargo ship, not a passenger liner. Our cargo has already been loaded into the hold and all of the crew are aboard. We _could_ radio in and apprise the dock of our early departure. However, there have been several rumors of cargo ships such as this one going down between Taro and Haha islands and in the general vicinity. Just how far south are you going?"

Anko grinned. "Are you based out of Sea Country?" she asked, getting a nod in reply. "Which island?"

"Taro," the captain answered.

"Then that's where I'm going."

The captain nodded. "I see. With a ninja aboard, we shouldn't have too much trouble if we come across someone or something unsavory. In return for your services, I will gladly cast off early. Smithe, inform the crew to make ready to set sail. Have the radio room contact the Port Authority and advise them of our change in schedule. I want us on open water within the hour."

"Yes, sir," Smithe saluted, going about his assigned task.

"Now, young lady," the captain smiled, rolling his nautical map up and putting it away, motioning for Anko to follow. "It has been a long time since I have enjoyed a pleasant conversation with an attractive young woman. And even in fair winds, it is a six say run to Sea Country. Tell me, do you play Shogi by any chance?"

Anko shrugged. "I do, but I'm not great at it. By the way, I didn't catch your name."

"Nor I, yours," the captain pointed out. "You may call me Alexander. And as to the question of your skill, well, to tell you the truth I am not very good either," he grinned, opening the door to his quarters and waving Anko towards a table in the center of the room. "Tea? Coffee?"

"Tea, please. And the name's Anko. Tell me, do you have a rat problem on this ship?" she asked, seemingly randomly.

The captain pondered the question for a moment before giving a slow nod. "There are some, yes, but not so many as to cause problems."

"Good," Anko smirked, kneeling and lowering her left hand to the ground. Captain Alexander watched in fascination as a two-foot long black snake with a triangular head emerged quickly from Anko's sleeve and turned to face her. "Go eat and have fun. Come find me tomorrow morning," she told it. After a moment, she added, "And don't kill anyone."

The snake seemed to almost frown for a moment. "Very well," it agreed before turning and slithering down the corridor.

"A summoned snake, I take it," Alexander surmised, getting a nod from Anko, who had stood by now. He turned to address the seaman stationed at his door to attend to him during the day. "Seaman Rowe, would you be so kind as to fetch the lady and myself a pot of tea. Green, I think," he ordered. Once the seaman had left his post, Alexander motioned towards one of the chairs at his table and moved to a shelf, pulling out a magnetic Shogi set, which he placed on the table before sitting himself. "How about a game, my dear?"

Studying the board for a moment, Anko moved one of her pieces laterally. "Tell me more about this trouble you've been having in Sea Country."

"Rumor has it," Captain Alexander stated slowly, contemplating his move before moving a piece forward, "that a sea monster has started hunting along the shipping routes."

* * *

It had been six and a half days since Team Hokage had boarded the ship from Fire Country's northern port bound for Sea Country. By that time, even Hinata was getting a bit cranky. When one of the crew came by their quarters and announced that they would be making port within the hour, the four ninja cheered. It was when Shizune pulled out the mission scroll again that they became slightly less exuberant.

Frowning down at the scroll, Shizune pulled out a small map and checked it for a moment before groaning. "The mission statement says the contract is for the Taro island of Sea Country."

"Isn't that where we're going?" Naruto asked, his hopes of getting off the boat quickly crashing down around his ears.

"No, Naruto-kun, we are traveling to Haha," Hinata answered, sitting up from where she'd been laying down away from the window studying the medical text Shizune had given her. During the time they had been at sea, Hinata had learned how to summon and how to perform Naruto's signature jutsu, the kage bunshin. Only being comfortable with creating a single clone at the moment, Hinata had still been able to use the technique to double her learning speed by having the shadow clone read from Naruto's book of human anatomy over his shoulder. Having a similar clone of the blond reading over her own shoulder in her book on advanced biology most of the time, Hinata had found herself slowly acclimating to the boy's presence due to constant exposure to him at close proximity. She no longer blushed every time he spoke to her and her stutter was slowly disappearing. Every now and then, she would slip back into her old habits but Tsunade was hopeful that within a year the girl would be a changed woman.

"We'll have to take a boat up from Haha to Taro, I suppose," Tsunade grumbled, wondering where her sake had gotten to. She had been unable to find any of her stash since leaving Konoha and through some odd twist of events she had been too pressed for time or distracted by her new apprentices to go for a drink. And now that she was aboard a ship in the middle of the sea with nothing to do but lay on her ass and read or teach unless she wanted to draw undue attention to her team, Tsunade was starting to really feel this prolonged dry spell.

Shizune, sensing the coming tantrum from her sensei, sighed and wondered exactly why she'd volunteered for the job in the first place—as she had many, many times since first joining Tsunade whenever the woman got to be too difficult to deal with. If she were honest with herself, apprenticing herself to Tsunade was both the best and worst decision she had ever made. Sure, she was learning how to save lives and would one day probably become a legendary medic-nin in her own right, sometimes the down sides to dealing with Tsunade became nearly unbearable. Naruto and Tsunade paralleled each other on so many levels that sometimes it actually scared the young medic. Both were prone to being childish, loud, impatient, short tempered, and quick to resort to violence when in a bad mood. And while the blond boy had mellowed out just enough to be noticeable—due to Hinata's presence, Shizune assumed—Tsunade had steadily reverted back into her old ways once she got over the initial rush of leaving Konoha behind and Shizune's attempt at cutting the older woman off from her sake started taking its toll. Tucking away the mission scroll, Shizune went back to studying from a much larger scroll laid out in front of herself and her sensei.

While Naruto and Hinata had studied the basics of anatomy, Tsunade and Shizune had been slowly going through the Scroll of Forbidden Seals. The scroll itself, when fully unrolled, measured several meters in length. Nearly three-quarters of the scroll's length had been filled with the details of every jutsu the four Hokages preceding Tsunade had deemed should be restricted or outright banned for one reason or another, including the reasoning behind the restrictions. Unrolling the scroll from right to left, they had found kage bunshin listed near the top of restricted jutsu—or rather, closer to the right side. After some time studying the scroll, Tsunade and Shizune came to the same conclusion: the scroll had been sealed with a fuuinjutsu that would automatically sort any jutsu written into it into one of two categories—Restricted or Forbidden—so long as the person writing them labeled them as such. Once a jutsu was written on a blank spot of the scroll, the ink would move across the paper and come to rest beside the last jutsu of that type written into the scroll, while the rest of the writing further further down the scroll shifted down to make room for the new technique.

Upon unrolling the scroll, they had discovered that while the Restricted section of the scroll measured nearly a meter in length—with over one hundred techniques listed—the Forbidden section spanned over three times that length. The pair of senior ninja had decided that in order to cover the most material in the scroll, they would learn two Forbidden jutsu for every Restricted. Learning the basics of three jutsu a day—how to perform the technique, what it did, and why it was put into the scroll—had allowed them to get a feel for over twenty techniques, counting the ones they were to study today. And while they were not sure enough in their knowledge to perform the techniques even under ideal conditions, their goal for the moment was not to have all of the techniques they could use battle ready. For now, they would settle for simply getting an idea of the scroll's contents.

Looking up from the scroll, Shizune noticed that Hinata had closed her book and the Naruto clone reading with her had dispersed. "You're done with that one?" she asked, getting a pair of nods.

"How does the body heal itself?" Tsunade asked, perking up at the chance to relieve her boredom.

After sharing a look with Naruto, Hinata decided to answer. "A localized increase in cellular mitosis."

Tsunade nodded. "And that means...?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "They divide faster."

"What is the cost of this action?" Shizune asked.

"Uh.. the things break off the ends of the things..." Naruto mumbled.

Seeing the boy floundering, Hinata elaborated on what he was trying to explain. "It increases the rate of cellular degeneration. By dividing faster, the cells shorten their lifespan. This is what causes aging. Theoretically, if we could figure out how to keep the cells from losing bits and pieces during mitosis, we could halt aging once the body came into its majority."

Tsunade and Shizune shared an impressed look, somewhat amazed that they had come to that conclusion on their own. "Explain the difference between healing and regeneration," Shizune said, continuing their impromptu pop quiz.

"Normal healing means scarring, regeneration doesn't," Naruto answered.

Seeing their sensei and senpai nod and motion for them to continue, Hinata did. "What Naruto-kun left out was that scarring is a byproduct of the increased cellular mitosis required to heal something like a cut. The body divides itself, replacing what was lost with new flesh. Most large animals do not regenerate, they heal by scarification. If an animal loses a limb, the area scars over at the point of loss. Regeneration, which occurs in most small reptiles, completely replaces the missing limb. The process takes longer, but fully restores functionality. For instance, if a person suffers intense burns over part of their body, the resulting scar tissue may not feel or function the same as the original. Regenerated tissue would be just like the tissue it replaced. If we knew how to stop scarification and trigger regeneration in humans, we could replace lost limbs, return older shinobi to active use, grow fresh organs instead of needing to transplant... the possibilities are almost limitless."

Turning away from her two new apprentices, Tsunade looked towards Shizune. "What do you think?"

"Well, they seem to know and understand the material," Shizune assessed. "Pass?"

Tsunade nodded, turning back towards Naruto and Hinata. "Looks like you pass the first test. Think you're ready for some hands-on material?"

"Yes!" Naruto cheered and agreed, bouncing in excitement. "Teach me a jutsu!"

"Do you feel you're ready to move on, Hinata?" Shizune asked.

"I believe so," the girl agreed slowly.

Holding out her hands so both teens could observe them, Tsunade slowly performed five seals and extended a faint green sheen of chakra from her hands. "This is the examination jutsu. It's used to detect any abnormalities within a living organism. The theory behind it is to extend your chakra into another person and try to sense anything out of the ordinary. It can detect even minor injuries, most poisons, diseases, chakra foreign to that body, chemical imbalances, and can even tell you if a person is dehydrated."

"Why don't you two practice on each other," Shizune suggested innocently, somehow managing to keep a straight face.

The pair nodded and began performing the seals before Naruto stopped and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "Could you show me those seals again?" Shizune did so, both teens sealing along with her and then repeating it several times until they felt comfortable enough to perform the seals from memory. "Why don't you go first, Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked.

"Ok," Hinata agreed, sealing and extending a very faint layer of green chakra from her hands. Slowly, she brought her hands closer to Naruto until they were settled directly against his arm. After several moments of sustaining the technique, Hinata released it and sat back to take a breather. "This is weird," she admitted. "There is so much information to sort through. How do you do it with any real accuracy?"

"Practice. Lots and lots of practice," Tsunade answered. "Your turn, Naruto."

The blond nodded, held his hands near Hinata's shoulder, and performed the jutsu. Despite his efforts to be careful, the boy's typical excitement towards anything new shone through. A dark green, rasengan-sized ball of chakra erupted from his palms, extending deep into the girl beside him. "Sorry," Naruto laughed, slowly pulling back the chakra until it only extended a few inches from his palms, though it did not lose the darker green color.

Beside him, Hinata had gone very, very red. Due to her training to learn jyuuken, she was even more sensitive to her own chakra and invading chakra than normal ninja aside from Hyuuga. The chakra flowing from the blond into her arm made her feel very warm and sent a pleasant tingle through her entire body. _'Naruto-kun's chakra is inside me,_ she realized, a small choking sound escaping from her throat as she fell back on old habits and promptly passed out.

Beside her, Naruto stopped the jutsu and grinned in embarrassment. "Um... I guess I used too much chakra or something," he mumbled, blushing at the giggles Tsunade and Shizune were having over his misfortune, though he was sure there was more to their amusement than his simple screw-up.

After getting herself back under control, Shizune grinned at the boy. "I'm pretty sure that wasn't it, Naruto-kun. The technique is designed to simply detect abnormalities, nothing beyond that. Increasing your chakra output would only allow you to cover more area without having to move your hands."

"Huh? Then why'd she pass out?"

Shizune shrugged, deciding to let him figure that out for himself. "Why don't you come over here and try it again?"

"Ok," Naruto agreed warily, still not sure he hadn't accidentally hurt Hinata and not wanting to damage anyone else by accident. He crossed the room and sat down beside Shizune, performing the seals and putting less chakra into the jutsu than he had the first time so that it came out how it had looked when he'd gotten it somewhat more under control. He pressed the dark green chakra coating his hands to the older kunoichi's arm and concentrated on what he could feel from the technique.

Beside the boy, Shizune blushed. "Oh my," she murmured, eyes unconsciously falling half closed. "I may have been mistaken."

"What?" Tsunade asked, quietly, not wanting to break the boy's concentration since he didn't seem to be paying attention to them at the moment.

"It's very," Shizune bit her lip as Naruto's concentration slipped momentarily, "nice."

Rolling her eyes, Tsunade went back to studying the Forbidden Scroll until they reached port, intending to ignore her apprentices until then. "You're both perverts," she mumbled quietly.

By the time they stepped off the ship onto the pier, both Hinata and Shizune were red-faced and feeling more than a little _frustrated_. Hinata had woken shortly after passing out and she and Naruto had taken turns trying the jutsu on each other and Shizune, though most of that was a constant non-verbal argument over who got to be Naruto's test subject. Walking behind the two younger kunoichi and in front of Tsunade, Naruto yawned and stretched his arms over his head. "Man, I'm hungry," Naruto complained when his stomach gurgled.

"How about we get something to eat then?" Tsunade suggested, getting agreements all around. Wandering into the shopping district, Naruto followed the scent of ramen and led the group to a stand a little ways down the street. The girls decided not to begrudge the boy his favorite meal and settled onto stools around him, Hinata to his right and Shizune to his left, Tsunade on the other side of Shizune.

"Seafood, pork, and beef," Naruto ordered when the cook asked what they would be having.

"A vegetable bowl please," Shizune ordered.

Looking at the menu, Tsunade shrugged and ordered pork while Hinata decided on miso. "We should restock our supplies while we're here," Tsunade said around a mouthful of noodles.

Before the group could decide one way or another about the matter, a commotion from down the street drew their attention. A small bandaged girl of around Naruto and Hinata's age came running down the street, her dull brown hair occasionally flopping up into her face as she ran. Naruto was drinking the last of his second bowl when she neared the stand they were eating at and one of the crowd drawn in by the commotion picked up a large rock off the street and flung it at the girl. The stone missed the girl by a mile, but managed to catch Naruto in the back of his head.

"Get out of our town, you little monster!" a woman behind them yelled, tossing another stone at the girl.

A wave of killing intent rolled across the shopping district, nearly sending the crowd to their knees. No one even saw the orange-clad blond move. One moment he had been placing his ramen bowl down and in the next, there was a flash of red and the boy stood in front of the girl—who had stopped running—with his hand outstretched and his fist clenched around the stone the woman across the street had thrown. The crowd couldn't help but notice that the boy's eyes were red and slitted as he shot them a glare, the killing intent that had nearly felled them quickly dissipated.

"Knock it off. What did she ever do to you jerks to deserve this kind of treatment?" he asked, voice carrying clearly over the street. Everyone there saw the hitai-ate covering his forehead and the three kunoichi who had moved into defensive positions around the girl and the orange-clad blond. The crowd quickly began to thin, the troublemakers deciding that hurting the girl wasn't worth dealing with a ninja. None of the ninja noticed a pair of observers slowly retreat into the dissipating crowd.

"Sorry about that," Naruto grinned, turning around to address the girl he'd helped and idly tossing the stone he'd caught over his shoulder. It bounced off the wall of the building behind him and smacked the man who had thrown the first stone in the face, sending him to the ground. Holding out his hand to help the girl up from where she'd fallen to the street, he said, "I'm Naruto. What's your name?"

Looking up into his now blue eyes that seemed to radiate mischief, the girl took his hand and allowed him to pull her to her feet. "Isaribi."

"Have you had lunch yet, Isaribi-san?" Hinata asked quietly.

Isaribi shook her head. "Not yet, no... uh..."

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "You'll have to forgive the loudmouth, he can be a bit absent-minded at times," she said before gesturing towards Shizune and Hinata. "These are my apprentices, Shizune and Hinata. Naruto already saw fit to introduce himself, and my name is Tsunade."

Nodding, a scent caught the girl's nose and the turned towards Naruto's untouched bowl on the stand's counter. "Is... is that sea-food ramen?"

"Yup," the boy grinned.

"May I?" Isaribi asked, and getting a nod, she sat down and placed her bag on the counter before digging into the ramen. Nearly finished, she glanced up at the clock mounted on the wall facing the stools and nearly choked on her lunch. "Ah crap! I'm going to miss the boat to Taro!" she yelled, jumping up and grabbing her bag again. Turning around, she bowed to the four ninja still standing behind her. "Thanks for lunch, I've got to go."

"Wait, we'll go with you!" Shizune called as the group followed the girl. "We're going to Taro anyway."

Isaribi nodded the led the way to the boat bound for Taro, the crowd letting her pass when they saw she had an escort. They boarded the boat and shortly after, it cast off its lines and began the trip up to Taro. Seeing as it was only a few hour ride to the island, the group decided to sit out on deck in the sun. Once things had settled down and they were under way, Isaribi turned her attention back towards her benefactors. "Who are you people anyway? Are you ninja?"

The three kunoichi nodded and Naruto thumped his hitai-ate. "Yeah, we're all ninja."

The girl looked skeptical. "I don't know. Sure, you move like ninja, but that's no symbol for a village I've ever seen before."

"Oh?" Tsunade asked, "and just how many have you seen?"

Thinking on it for a moment, Isaribi asked, "Should I could the damaged ones?"

"Damaged?" Hinata asked.

The girl nodded. "Yeah, they looked like someone had scratched a line through them. I see lots of those around here. They come and go, but they never really bother anyone. If I count those, I've seen at least seven different designs. And I've never seen that one before. So what village are you from?"

"You wouldn't have seen it before, because it's new," Shizune explained. "Originally, we're all from Konoha. Some things happened and Tsunade-shishou decided she was tired of being Hokage to a village that would treat her family like crap. So we left."

"Konoha?" Isaribi asked, a recent memory attached to that name coming to mind. "Wasn't your home attacked recently by those guys with the music-note headbands I've been seeing a lot of lately?"

_That_ caught the group's attention. "How many and where?" Tsunade asked, sitting upright.

Isaribi shrugged. "A dozen or so at most. They stay mostly on Kikaijima, the small island to the south of Haha."

"Have you seen a guy about our age with black hair and a jacket with red and white fans on his back?" Naruto asked quickly. Isaribi shook her head and Naruto seemed to deflate. "Shit."

"How about this man?" Shizune asked, pulling out a bingo book and pointing to a picture of Orochimaru.

Isaribi again shook her head. "No, I'm sorry."

"It's ok," Tsunade assured the girl. "It just means we won't have to deal with Orochimaru, which is a good thing. I doubt we could handle him now, even with Jiraiya's help."

"So if you aren't here for him, why are you here?" Isaribi asked, looking out over the sea. Taro Island had come into sight and they would be there within the hour.

"We've got a mission," Naruto grinned, Hinata nodding in agreement.

"Yeah? What kind of mission?"

"Well," Shizune said, pulling out the mission scroll and reviewing it again. "Konoha was hired to investigate the rumors of a sea-monster in the area. We sort of stole the mission," she grinned.

"I see," Isaribi said, beginning to look ill. "I... I have to go to the bathroom," she groaned, standing and running towards the rear of the ship.

"Guess she gets sea sick easy," Naruto shrugged, getting skeptical looks from the three kunoichi. At that moment, the ship shuddered and the constant vibration from the single engine ceased, smoke billowing up from the stern. "What the hell is it now?"

A pair of ninja in Sound hitai-ate leaped out of the engine room entrance in front of Team Hokage, the one in the lead pulling out a kunai as he spotted the group. "Out of our way!" he yelled, his arm extending unnaturally and swinging the weapon in a wide arc, clearing a path for himself and his teammate. At the end of its arc, the blunt end of the kunai caught Naruto in the side of his head, sending him into unconsciousness and flinging him over the side while the pair of Oto-nin jumped from the boat on the opposite side. They faintly heard the sound of a fourth body hitting the water near the stern of the ship as they ran over to the side Naruto had disappeared over, Shizune and Tsunade leaping over the railing and landing on the water's surface while Hinata scanned the area with her Byakugan.

"Where is he?" Tsunade called up as Hinata jumped over to join them on the water.

"I-i don't know. I don't see him anywhere," Hinata answered and the older kunoichi could hear the panic in her voice.

After nearly an hour of circling the ship in search of their blond companion, the group climbed back aboard as the crew got the sails up and got the ship back under way, albeit slowly. "Ok, when we get to shore, we'll have the Port Authority send out a search party," Tsunade reasoned calmly, hoping that Naruto could last that long.

"But what if he—" Hinata started, only to be cut off by Shizune.

"We can't think that way. He'll be fine," Shizune assured the smaller girl. "He has to be," she said, more for her own benefit.

* * *

It was well after dark that same day when the ship Anko was on pulled into port at Haha Island to unload. Finishing her game with Captain Alexander, she stood and stretched. "I'm going to go scout around town for a while, maybe get a drink while you guys unload."

Captain Alexander nodded. "We should be no more than three hours unloading."

Stepping from the Captain's quarters, Anko stopped long enough to pick up her snake and made her way off the ship. Spotting the nearest bar, she wandered her way over to it while behind her, Coe slipped from the boat and made his way into town. After getting a bite to eat from the back door of the same bar Anko had slipped into, he followed the scent trail that stood out most to a ramen stand. _'Fox-kid was here, earlier today. We're catching up,'_ he thought, slipping back into the shadows along the street and following the boy's scent back to the docks, where it ended at a different berth from where it had started.

"HEY!" a voice called from down the dock, running towards an office near the dog as he slipped back out of the man's line of sight. The man who had yelled stopped in the door frame long enough to catch his breath before continuing. "Taro's just sent out a SAR order. Apparently some idiot ninjas wrecked one of the ferries making runs between here and there and got into a scuffle with a bigger group of ninjas that were coming into Taro on the ferry. One of the ones that tried to catch the assholes got knocked overboard."

The woman in the office took the clipboard with the message from Taro and read it over. "Twelve year old shinobi male, blond, wearing an orange jacket," she read the description aloud. "Ok, I'll radio the other ships in the yard and let them know to have their crews keep an eye out for him," she said, closing the door to her office and dismissing the messenger.

Beside the building, Coe went over the description and compared it to what he knew of the smells he'd been following. There were four scents, all of ninja, and of those only one was male—and a young boy at that. _'That has to be the fox-kid. If he's missing, I'll have to find the other group and deliver this.'_

His mind made up, Coe made his way back down the dock and up the boarding plank onto the ship he knew would be going up to Taro shortly. Anko found her way back onto the ship just as it was preparing to cast off, yawning as she made her way back into Captain Alexander's quarters to make sure he knew she was aboard.

"Welcome back. Enjoy yourself?" he asked, a grin on his face as he studied the board that he had still yet to clear from his last loss against the woman. Seeing her nod, he relayed a bit of news he'd had brought to him a few moments ago. "It seems that a Search an Rescue mission has been declared by Taro. A ninja boy fell overboard during a scuffle with a pair of ruffians that decided to cause trouble."

Anko's eyes snapped open and her attention focused immediately. "Description?" she asked, all-business.

His interest piqued, Alexander relayed what he had been told. "A young blond haired boy in orange."

"Fuck," Anko growled in frustration.

"You seem upset," Alexander deadpanned.

Anko snorted. "Only about my paycheck," she grumbled, storming out onto the deck and finding a spot to nap until they got into Taro.

A few hours later, the ship pulled in and Anko jolted awake. Beside her, the captain smiled. "I see you're awake." The woman nodded, stretching for a moment before standing.

"Thanks for letting me tag along."

Alexander shook his head. "No, it has been my pleasure. As I said at the outset of this voyage, it is few and far between that I get to enjoy conversation with a beautiful young woman."

"Flatterer," Anko accused.

The old captain nodded. "Guilty as charged."

Anko turned to leave the ship when a flash of movement caught her eye. "Do you keep a dog on this ship?" she asked, worry beginning to set in.

Alexander shook his head. "No, we do not keep a dog aboard. Some of the crew had reported seeing a dog around below decks since you boarded, so I assumed it was yours."

"Shit! No! It's not mine," Anko denied. "I've got to go before that damn mutt ruins everything," she called over her shoulder as she took off from the ship and into town. "We had a fucking nin-dog aboard and I didn't even _notice_?! What the hell?"

Silently berating herself, Anko decided to go with her initial plan of searching for the brat first, and so took off into the trees over the beach and began to circle the island. And in another part of town, Coe snickered to himself at the woman's frustration as he followed the scent trail to a hotel. Finding the door the trail stopped at, he scratched at the bottom of the door and waited. A moment later, a small lavender-haired girl opened the door and smiled down at him. Her eyes were red-rimmed and Coe could smell the tears from here. Brushing past her, he slipped into the room and sat down facing Tsunade, who turned her attention towards him.

"What?"

Coe tilted his head to the side, showing them the rolled up letter. "A message from Dane," he answered bluntly.

Taking the message from the summoned dog, Shizune unrolled it and read it. Re-reading the short missive, she frowned and handed it to her sensei. "Anko," Tsunade nodded. "Sounds like the council sent her here for Naruto."

"The snake-woman is after the fox-child?" Coe asked.

Tsunade nodded. "Wait, you've seen her?" Shizune asked, then thought to ask, "And how did you know that?"

Coe rolled his eyes. "Yes, she is on the island now. Due to some odd twists of fate, she and I boarded the same ship. And as for the boy, I can smell it. I assumed he had a contract with the foxes, but before encountering his scent I was not aware that there even was one."

"No, um... It's something else," Shizune answered.

"Dane said as much before I left," the dog nodded.

Hinata spoke up for the first time since they had entered port. "You tracked us here. Do you think you could find him?" she asked, hope evident in her voice.

Coe nodded. "I can, but I wouldn't know where to start since I know he fell overboard. Besides, that woman is out there looking for him now and I doubt you'd want to cross her path in the forest at night."

Tsunade sighed, nodding her agreement. "He's right. Anko is a handful during the day. Trying to take her on at night is just asking for trouble. We'd be better off getting some rest and starting out in the morning."

"But if she finds him..."

Shizune nodded. "We know. But she probably started searching along the beach, and it's a pretty big island. It'll take her at least twelve hours to find him using any search pattern, so long as she doesn't just stumble onto him. And that's assuming he did wash up here or even made it to shore yet." Shizune wasn't quite willing to voice the obvious addition, 'if he's even still alive.'

That morning, Naruto woke to the smell of a camp fire and fish cooking. Sitting up, he looked around and spotted Isaribi. "Hey, you're up," she said, turning the fish on the fire. "You probably shouldn't be moving around. You took a pretty nasty hit to the head."

Naruto shook his head, which felt fine, before answering. "Naw, I heal pretty fast. So, where are we? And where is everyone else."

Isaribi bit her lip in trepidation before answering. "A little inlet on the north-eastern shore of Taro called Fukitsune Bay. You were thrown overboard by that Sound guy with the long arms. You weren't moving so I pulled you to shore. Everyone else is probably in port by now."

"Thanks," Naruto chuckled, taking one of the fish she offered. "You're a nice person. I don't see what those guys on Haha have against you."

"I'm not."

"Hmm?" Naruto asked around a mouthful of fish.

"A nice person," Isaribi clarified. "Not really. I really am his little monster," she murmured quietly.

Naruto shook his head. "You aren't a monster. Those guys are just assholes and too stupid to see you for who you really are. You can't let them get to you."

"What would you know?!" Isaribi exploded, throwing her fish into the fire and standing. "You don't have a clue what it's like to be hated by everyone you know. You wouldn't know how it is to have people who used to love you suddenly treat you like some kind of demon. You're just a stupid little boy playing at being a ninja!" she yelled, turning and running towards the surf.

"Wait!" Naruto yelled after her. His next words were cut off as he watched her transformation and she fled into the water. After a moment, he dropped back down in front of the fire. "I do know."

The sun had risen only slightly higher above the water by the time Anko came upon the boy's camp fire. Stopping just inside the tree line, she dismissed her summon and waited. She could see his jacket, pants, and shirt laying near the fire so she knew he had to be nearby. Several moments later, a blond head shot up out of the water and shook itself off. The boy paddled to shore and climbed out of the water, the sand sticking to his wet sandals. Anko prepared to move closer when a slight blue sheen of chakra surrounded the boy and the water sticking to his body and boxers slid off into the sand below, leaving him dry—save for his hair. Reaching up to feel it, the blond groaned in annoyance. _'The kid's actually pretty decently built for his age. Short though. And he looks under-fed,'_ she mused. Growing impatient, Anko leaped from the tree line and walked towards the boy's back from across the sand.

The breeze shifted and Naruto froze. "What do you want?" the boy asked, turning slowly around to face her. "Hey, don't I know you?"

Anko smirked, taking a seat on the sand near the boy. "Good to see you remember me."

"Yeah, you're that crazy examiner woman from the last chuunin exam. What the hell are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?" she repeated, her grin spreading. "The council ordered me to come kill you."

Naruto nodded. "So, why are you sitting there screwing around when you should be trying to finish your mission?"

Anko shrugged. This wasn't how she imagined this going. She had planned to meet with the group, since she was sure that Danzou had someone following her to make sure she finished the job. With the boy alone, he would be open to attack. Deciding to go for broke, she told him the truth. "Maybe I don't like the council any more than you do."

"What do you mean?"

"Look kid," Anko started, "Tsunade was the last good thing to happen to Konoha after Sandaime died. The council did a stupid, stupid thing by putting her into the position they did. The place has been slowly falling apart since she left. Those idiots that always treated you like shit are going to realize real soon that kicking you out didn't solve a damn thing. Maybe after that they'll realize that neither did blaming you for something you had no control over.

"You may not know it, but you and I are a lot alike. We've both been apprenticed to a sannin, we're both loud and pretty obnoxious, and the truth of the matter is that Konoha would like to see both of us dead. They've just been ignoring me for you in recent years."

"So what, you want to come with us?" the blond asked, pulling on his clothes now that hair was mostly dry.

Anko grinned. "Maybe. We'll see. Come on, let's get you to town. The rest of your team is probably already out searching for you."

Throwing on his jacket, Naruto nodded. "Sure you're not going to stick a kunai in my back as soon as I turn around?"

Anko rolled her eyes. "If I were going to kill you now, I'd at least have the decency to do you from the front."

As the pair took off into the trees towards where Anko knew the port was located, Naruto asked, "Don't you mean 'it,' not 'you?'" His only answer was a shrug as the woman continued to lead the way.

It was nearly noon when Anko and Naruto were intercepted by Team Hokage, plus one dog. Coming to a stop some distance away from each other on the beach, Anko waved. "Hi."

Seeing that the other three kunoichi were far from relaxed, Naruto reached out to the side and swatted Anko on the shoulder. "Knock it off, you're creeping them out."

"I was just trying to be nice, you damn brat," Anko grumbled.

"That's probably why," the blond deadpanned.

"HEY! I can be nice when I want to."

"Sure, when you're not being crazy, loud, or throwing kunai at people and then licking them," Naruto nodded before turning his attention back to his team. "Crazy-lady here says she wants to join up."

"What about her mission?" Shizune asked, not yet relaxing.

Naruto shrugged. "If she wanted to kill me she's had plenty of chances."

After a moment of thought, Tsunade relaxed, and immediately after so did all of the other kunoichi. "I'll think about it. Come on, we've still got a mission."

"Mission?" Anko asked as she and Naruto sidled up alongside the three other kunoichi and began to trek back towards town at a much slower pace. "So you guys really did still a bunch of stuff when you left?"

"Some mission scrolls and a few other things," Shizune confirmed.

"'A few other things,' my ass. You made off with half the funds in the treasury and the Hokage's library. The council is probably still shitting themselves over that as we speak."

"If you don't mind my asking, who gave you your orders?" Tsunade asked.

"Danzou, Homura, and Koharu."

Tsunade nodded. "And how did they convince you it was a legal mission?"

"They didn't try very hard. They said it was your idea of a joke mostly," Anko explained. "So I was right, and they are giving out illegal orders?" Tsunade nodded. "Well, it won't be long before the tail Danzou sent to watch me reports back that I've deserted."

Their conversation was cut off as the harbor came into sight, and with it a giant amorphous blob of water making its way through the bay toward the port. "Looks like we found our sea-monster," Shizune pointed out, already thinking of just how successfully completing this mission would spread word of their team across the elemental nations.

Up the beach, Amachi—the scientist responsible for carrying out Orochimaru's experiments on enhancing ninja—smirked as he transformed and strode away from the pier where he'd summoned his water creature, flanked on either side by Akado Yoroi and Tsurugi Misumi, Isaribi trailing behind. "Just a little more, Isaribi, and I will be able to return you to normal," he promised, though he had no intention of helping the girl.

Isaribi stopped following the man who had abducted her and used her for his experiments. She hadn't realized who it was she was traveling with the previous day at first, but once things had calmed down she had remembered that Tsunade was the name of a legendary med-nin. After considering all of her options, she had finally decided that Amachi had no intention of returning her to normal and her best shot at a normal life would be to seek help elsewhere. And with a medic of Tsunade's renown in town, she may have a chance at it. "I... I don't want to do this any more. You only want to use me to help you steal from these people. You never even tried to fix what you've done to me!"

Amachi smirked. "What is there to fix? I have made you more than you were, better in every way. My beautiful little monster. You should be thanking me." Seeing her turn to run, Amachi caught the girl by the arm and brought her up short, the fingers of his other hand going rigid and the claws at the tips of his fingers lengthening. "And if you're going to deny me this, then I'll deal with you as I did with all the other failures."

"So, you're behind the attacks on the shipping lanes?" a woman's voice called from behind the pair, causing Amachi to whirl around to find himself facing a group of five ninja. "What the hell are you?" asked a blond, large-breasted woman with a hat tied to her back.

"The next step of human evolution," Amachi proclaimed haughtily.

"Let her go!" Naruto shouted.

"Now why would you want a waste of flesh such as this? This is a failed experiment, not even a proper sea-monster. But if you want her so badly, you can have her!" Amachi yelled, stabbing his hand into Isaribi's side wrist-deep before throwing her at the blond boy. "Kill them while I handle the ships," he instructed Yoroi and Misumi, who leaped at the other ninjas.

"Shizune, Hinata, deal with those two! Naruto, Anko, take out that bastard and his summon while deal with this," Tsunade barked out orders, already in the process of repairing the damage done to the girl.

Anko grinned as she charged forward, a kunai drawn in each hand. She was intercepted halfway to her assigned target by one of Misumi's legs, stretched absurdly long to catch her in the stomach. Grunting in pain, she focused her attention on him. "You'll do," she growled, launching herself forward on the offensive. Seeing that Anko was occupied, Shizune and Hinata agreed to double-team Yoroi, Hinata slipping into a jyuuken stance while Shizune extended a pair of chakra scalpels from her hands.

Naruto had leapt over both battles and followed Amachi across the pier, where he was directing his summon to rip open a ship's deck to get at the cargo hold beneath. Noticing the blond barreling down on him, Amachi smirked. As Naruto neared him, a tentacle composed of water shot up from the bay and wrapped around the blond, pulling him towards the summon and away from Amachi. "You really think a kid like you could stand against me?"

Naruto ignored the question, instead shouting down one of his own. "Why the hell did you do that to her?! She's a good person, she didn't deserve that! And you may have killed her, just because she didn't agree with you."

"I was going to kill her anyway. Why do you care about the little monster?"

"She's not a monster!" Naruto yelled back. "She's just a little girl that some sick old man decided to play doctor with for that snake-bastard."

Amachi nodded patronizingly. "Perhaps. Then if she isn't the monster, it must be me," he smirked, gesturing towards his transformed body. "What do you think?"

Naruto could feel it now, the rage burning just below the surface of his mind, threatening to overwhelm him. He could almost feel it, the fox standing behind him, its breath hot on his neck urging him on—to kill, destroy this man and show him just how insignificant he really was. And for once, Naruto was in agreement with the fox. "You're no monster, just a sick fuck who gets off on hurting kids. You wanted a monster?" the blond, grabbing hold of the power the fox offered and smirking down at Amachi as he felt his own transformation taking place. **"I'll show you the stuff of nightmares."**

Youki exploded off the boy, along with a wave of killing intent that sent any villagers stupid enough to stick around running for the hills. The other members of Team Hokage looked in that direction in worry for a moment before going back to their tasks. Anko summed up the thought on everyone's mind. "Shit."

The tentacle holding Naruto in place burst into steam on contact with the red chakra boiling off the boy's form. Below him, Amachi stood frozen in sheer terror. And from its place behind the seal, Kyuubi very nearly drooled in anticipation of the kill to come. There would be no battle, no real fight to speak of. No, looking down, it knew that this would be over as quickly as it would be messy.

**Look at the little hairless ape who wanted to play god tremble in fear of my power,** it whispered to the blond, unable to contain its excitement any longer

Naruto landed on all fours on the surface of the bay. Bringing his hands together in front of him, a red-tinted rasengan spun into existence with barely a thought. Behind him, a second tail extended from the youki shroud, reaching forward and wrapping around the rasengan. The summon behind him let out an unearthly wail, and in a flash the tail had extended up and out, slamming the rasengan into the center of the creature and blowing it into water vapor. Naruto leapt up onto the concrete pier some distance in front of Amachi, who fell to his knees as a third tail sprouted from the rear of the youki shroud and the killing intent tripled, unconsciously losing his hold over his transformation and leaving him there in his human form.

**Kill him. Crush him. Tear him asunder and BATHE THIS TOWN IN HIS BLOOD!**

The Kyuubi-possessed boy continued towards his target, his _prey_, every step burning his footprints into the concrete. Amachi's bladder released itself as he attempted to back away from the thing in front of him and he found himself backing into a wall. The boy's clawed hands trembled as he looked down on the man that had brought so much pain and suffering to the people of Sea Country, immediately reminded of Gatou and Wave. Taking a steadying breath, the boy stilled his shaking and began releasing the power he'd called upon. "No."

**If you don't have the stomach for it, then let someone who does,** growled the fox, thrashing against the cage-seal even as its power dissipated around the boy.

"I said no. I'm not a monster," he murmured, bringing his leg around and kicking Amachi so his head smashed against the wall behind him.

Deciding that Amachi was no longer a threat, the boy turned to rejoin his teammates. The sound of feet scuffing against concrete caused Naruto to turn around, but it was too late to even begin to dodge the partially transformed hand Amachi slammed into his chest. "Die you little bastard," Amachi growled. What he found as he looked into the supposedly-dying blond's face was not surprise, shock, or even regret to be losing his life. No, he found only pity. The realization that the blond had spared his life from the real monster and he had thrown the chance away would be the last thought to pass through his mind.

**You may deny it, but I **_**am**_** a monster. And if you can not bring yourself to do what it takes to keep the both of us alive, THEN I WILL!**

Youki again exploded off the boy, forming the tails and pulling Amachi away from him and into the air. Before he could even draw breath to scream, they _pulled_, scattering pieces of the scientist across the pier and raining blood down in a show that would—at one time—have made Gaara jealous. By the time Team Hokage and Anko—who was supporting Isaribi as she leaned on the kunoichi—had arrived, the hole in the boy's chest had already healed, leaving only blood and the hole in his shirt as proof he'd ever even been injured. Turning to face his friends as the youki around him dissipated, Naruto grinned weakly before passing out; chakra exhaustion, blood loss, and overuse of Kyuubi's power sending him into blissful unconsciousness.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** By about the middle of this chapter I had gotten really tired of the Sea Country arc. Thankfully, I get to do something fun soon.

Initially, this chapter would have been a little longer, but I decided that it was long enough as it is and moved the end of it to the beginning of the next. The next two chapters will be somewhat shorter than this one. They're 34-35k as opposed to my usual 40k-ish. Yes, I know this because I already have them written. No, I will not post them yet. I have to save something for when I finally lose steam and stop turning them out at about one-per-day as I have been for these first few.

I realize that things were different here from how they were in the actual episodes, this is intentional. What's the point in even writing a fanfic if you're just going to write out something that's already been done before word-for-word? ...Besides, as I also pointed out, I haven't watched the episodes. I took an episode summary, character list, and a general idea of what I want to happen and just went from there. If I have failed to live up to your expectations (especially on the 'fight,' but that was always meant to be brutal and one-sided), I apologize. I'll make up for it later.

On another note, I may start looking for a beta soon. I've resisted the idea mostly because I don't like being hounded for updates, because I _can_ do my own beta work, and because most so-called beta-readers can't even tell the difference between 'their,' 'there,' and 'they're'—let alone catch something small that I actually missed when I was looking for it. However, I've also come to realize that by the time I finish writing one chapter and start on the next, I'm only really interested in reading it over once to make a quick check for screw ups that don't get caught and by the time that's done, I'll be pretty sick of looking at it for a while. If I make up my mind on the matter, I'll let you know.


	5. Training Begins

**The Missing Hokage**

**05: Training Begins**

* * *

The blond woke to the feeling of gently rising and falling, as though on a boat. A deep breath in through his nose confirmed that he was, in fact, on a boat. Groaning in annoyance, Naruto rolled over in the small bunk he'd been placed in and tried to go back to sleep. "Give it up kid, you've been asleep for the past three days. You don't need any more."

Yawning, Naruto sat up and turned toward the source of the voice. He found Anko sitting on the floor of their cabin, along with Hinata, Shizune, Tsunade, and Isaribi. "Three days?"

Tsunade nodded. "You overused Kyuubi's youki," she explained.

The blond boy nodded for a moment before her words registered and his eyes shot open in fear and betrayal. After a moment, he growled and stood from the bunk, attempting to leave the room. "Damnit you old hag, when will you learn to keep your mouth shut?"

Anko reached out and snagged the retreating boy's leg, giving it a sharp jerk and causing him to fall forward. Once he was down, she sat on top of him and held his hands apart so he wouldn't be able to try to use kawarimi to get away. "Why don't you shut your own mouth before jumping to conclusions? Tsunade had to tell them something and would you rather it be the truth or a lie you'll just have to own up to later? This secret of yours had to get out eventually, anyhow."

"I know that," the boy mumbled into the deck, turning his head to the side, away from the others. "I just didn't want it to be now."

"Don't be such a pussy," Anko growled, letting go of one of his hands long enough to slap the back of his head. "Three of the people in this room left their homes for you, you ungrateful little shit. Two of them already knew before they even met you and do you really think Hinata's opinion of you would have changed for the worse if she were really your friend? Or were you just too scared to tell her yourself and find out?" Seeing the boy's annoyed glare through his one visible eye, Anko knew she'd hit the mark. "Let me tell you a secret," the kunoichi said, leaning down until her hair tickled the back of the boy's neck and he could feel her breath hot and steady on his ear. "_She already knew._ She knew before she left and she's been here the whole time. What does that tell you? Or are you blind as well as stupid and unable to see that that girl has worshiped the ground you walk on since you were kids?"

"Wha?"

Anko's head slammed down into the back of his own, sending his head crashing into the floor. "Gods, you really _are_ that dense," she grumbled, getting up off the boy and going back to where she'd been sitting. When the boy sat up but did not not try to flee, Anko continued. "No one in this room hates you, and we'd appreciate a little more faith in us from now on."

"Sorry," the boy apologized sheepishly, his mind still stuck on the last part of what Anko had told him. He'd never really had any real friends in Konoha, and to be told that he could have possibly had the best, most loyal friend possible if he'd just paid more attention...

"I'm sorry too," Isaribi spoke up, drawing the boy's attention and bringing him out of his thoughts. At his curious expression, she continued. "About what I said on the beach. I was wrong and I'm sorry for being a jerk."

Naruto waved her apology off. "Don't worry about it. I had forgotten about it until you brought it up anyway," he lied, a grin spreading across his face. "Why are you here, anyway?"

"Tsunade-sama agreed to try to cure Isaribi-san's condition. We picked up Amachi's research notes before we left, so we should be able to help her," Shizune answered.

"What happened to those two other guys with him?"

"We tied them up and left them for the local authorities," Shizune answered.

Naruto nodded. "So... we're on another boat?"

Tsunade nodded. "For the next day or so, depending on the weather. We'll be getting off at the northern-most port of Tea Country, named—originally enough—Fishing Village."

Nodding, Naruto asked, "What then?"

"Well," Shizune began, "before we left Sea Country I sent a missive by bird to our next two clients, telling the first to expect us within two weeks and the next to meet us in Fire Country's northern port ten days after that."

"Our next client is in Neck Country," Hinata clarified for Naruto. "We are to investigate a haunted castle."

"Haunted?" Naruto asked, getting nods from Shizune and Tsunade. "Awesome! ...Wait, We're getting on _another_ boat after that?" he asked, getting more nods. "Shit."

"That reminds me," Tsunade said towards the boy, "the dog that delivered our warning about Anko told me to have you stop by _The Great Dane_ the next time you're in Otafuku Gai and have Dane summon him. He sounded pretty serious."

"Ah, Tsunade-shishou," Shizune said, catching her mentor's attention. "Now that Naruto-kun is awake, can we tell them?"

The older blond nodded, shooting Naruto and Hinata a grin. "Well, the people of Sea Country decided that even though we weren't the village they had sent their request in to, they would still pay us and give us credit for the mission—which has been bumped up from B-rank to A with the involvement of enemy ninja and that summon. So, since the two of you did so well, we've decided to reward you."

Hinata smiled while Naruto sat up straighter and began to nearly vibrate in excitement. "So what do we get? A nifty new jutsu? Something from the Forbidden Scroll?"

"Better," Tsunade answered, digging through her bag and pulling out a medium sized scroll. "Before we left Konoha, I swiped Sandaime's personal summoning contract for monkeys. You get to sign it."

"That's all?" Naruto grumbled at the same time Anko let out a whistle and breathed out the words, "Holy shit."

Turning to glare at the boy, Anko swatted the back of his head. "Show some respect you brat! That's one of the most useful contracts to have, and one of the rarest to get a hold of."

"How are they useful?" Naruto asked.

Anko rolled her eyes. "Monkeys are some of the very few summons capable of using the same jutsu humans use. And that's without aid from the summoner. Sandaime's personal summon, Enma, is as legendary as Gamabunta, Katsuyu, and Manda."

Naruto shrugged, accepting and signing the contract when Hinata passed it to him after signing it herself. "That's pretty useful then. More useful than slugs," Naruto snickered, earning a glare from Tsunade.

Looking at the scroll, Anko bit her lip. "Do you mind if I sign that?"

Tsunade's eyebrows rose. "I suppose not, so long as you provide the snake summoning contract."

"Why don't we just all share contracts?" Hinata asked, drawing reticent looks from both Anko and Naruto.

"That's kind of..." Anko started.

Naruto finished for her. "Personal. I would have to ask the toads if they'd let me allow people to sign the contract, since there are only a few names on it so far."

"I suppose if we were all trading around contracts it would only be fair for me to let you guys sign the snake contract, but most of the snakes aren't very friendly and many of the larger ones demand sacrifices for their use. And never try to summon Manda unless you're ready to sacrifice an entire village to that bastard."

Tsunade gave it some thought for a moment before nodding. "I'll let you sign the slug contract if you agree to start learning medical jutsu."

Anko shrugged, grinning. "Sure, why not? I've never really tried it before, but it would be a useful skill to have," she said, summoning the snake with the contract and passing the scroll around for the other kunoichi and Naruto to sign. When they were finished, Anko gave the scroll back to the snake and it disappeared.

While Tsunade passed Anko the monkey scroll, Naruto summoned Gamakichi. "Yo! Got any sweets?" the little toad asked.

"Not this time, sorry," Naruto shook his head. "I need you to go ask your dad if it's ok for me to let some friends sign your contract."

"More summoners? Sure, I'll ask," Gamakichi agreed, disappearing in another cloud of smoke. Once Anko had signed the monkey scroll, Tsunade summoned the slug with the contract and allowed Anko to sign that as well. Soon after the slug disappeared, Gamakichi reappeared. "Dad says it's ok. Said you're welcome to let anyone sign that you wanted to."

"Thanks Gamakichi. Who has the contract now?"

"Gamaryou, I think," the small orange frog answered.

Nodding, Naruto dismissed him and summoned Gamaryou, who he saw did have the scroll. Taking the scroll from the toad, Naruto passed it around and let the kunoichi sign it before giving it back to the toad and dismissing him. "So we're all going to sign the same contracts in the future?"

Tsunade nodded. "I think I'll let anyone who wears this hitai-ate sign any contract they want to, so long as the original contract holders approve," the older medic answered, thumbing her red hitai-ate. "Speaking of, if you're going to be traveling with us, you'll need one of these Anko."

Anko grinned. "Fine by me. Should I scratch this one out until then?"

Shizune shook her head, "No, that would draw unwanted attention from hunter-nin."

"What are we going to work on next?" Hinata asked, eager to start their next bit of training.

"More chakra control for Naruto-kun," Shizune answered. "And more practice with the exam jutsu."

Biting her bottom lip in thought for a moment, Anko made a suggestion. "If we're already sharing summoning contracts, why don't we share techniques as well? Tsunade, you and Shizune have your medical jutsu and your super-strength technique, I've got the Hebi taijutsu style and a bunch of jutsu from Orochi-teme, blondie's got rasengan and a couple of others I think, and Hinata-chan has her jyuuken style. If we pool our strengths, there will be less of a chance we'll run into someone who can beat us."

Tsunade nodded. "And with Akatsuki after Naruto, at this point I'm willing to take any advantage I can get."

Naruto blinked as a thought occurred. "Hey, how long did you say it would take to get to Neck Country?"

"About two weeks," Shizune answered. "Why?"

Naruto grinned. "Well, I don't know about monkeys, but so far toads are the fastest summons we've got that will let us ride them. If we travel by toad part of the day, we can cover distance faster and get more training in. Besides, riding a toad is kind of training in itself, since you have to use chakra to stick to them or you go flying off."

Anko grinned, reaching an arm over and snagging the boy into a one-armed hug, her other hand ruffling his hair. "I love this kid already."

The rest of that day found Team Hokage—plus one—studying more medical texts. Isaribi had agreed to study under Tsunade as well, as despite not being a ninja the girl was aware of chakra and had good chakra control and reserves which had been built up as a side effect of using her transformation. Anko and Isaribi were currently studying the two texts that Naruto and Hinata had already finished. As the sun finished setting outside, Naruto stood up and popped his back. "I think I'm going to go get some fresh air. I'll be back in a few."

The blond left and made his way to the stern of the ship. Leaning against the railing, Naruto looked out towards the last bit of light still peeking over the horizon from the setting sun. Some time later, long after the moon had risen high in the sky, Anko leaned against the railing next to him. "You thinking about what happened on Taro?" she asked.

After a moment, the blond nodded. "That's the first time I've ever killed someone. I should have stopped it but... It's weird, but I don't feel bad about it. Does that make me a bad person?"

"Naw, that's normal. He was an asshole and he tried to kill you. He got what he deserved. And how the hell were you supposed to stop it anyway? From what I saw, he stuck his hand into your guts and Kyuubi didn't take kindly to that. I doubt you could have stopped it under those conditions."

The blond nodded again, throwing her a thankful smile—a real smile, for once. "Thanks. That helps a lot."

Anko _almost_ blushed at that. Rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment, she pushed herself off the rail. "Yeah, well, don't let it get out that I'm actually a nice person. I have a reputation to uphold, you know," she grumbled, grabbing the back of his jacket and dragging him towards the hatch. "Come on, they're beginning to worry and Hinata-chan fixed your old shirt. I'll tell them I found you up here fishing or something."

They spent another day on the ship before getting off at the port, restocking their supplies, and putting some distance between themselves and the sea. After half a day of travel by toad, which took some getting used to, they decided to make camp for the rest of the afternoon and get some training in. Turning to regard her two newest apprentices, Tsunade hummed thoughtfully. "Hinata, I think you may be ready to start learning my strength technique."

"Let me guess, needs more chakra control?" Naruto asked.

Tsunade nodded. "Yeah, but you should be ready to start soon. Why don't you have your clones practice chakra control exercises and read and let Anko beat some of that energy out of you?"

"That sounds good, I guess," Naruto nodded, summoning another small army worth of clones. Anko's jaw dropped and Isaribi turned towards Shizune.

"Is that normal?"

"Not usually, no," Shizune shook her head. "For Naruto? It's a daily occurrence. He hasn't had a chance to practice like this since we first boarded a ship. Tsunade-shishou didn't want to attract attention."

"H-how many?" Anko asked, her mouth suddenly dry.

"I don't know," Naruto answered, explaining it as he had for Team Hokage originally. "I used about as much chakra as I do to call Gamabunta, so I'd say about a thousand. I've never counted before, but I know there are a couple hundred."

"You need to take a head count and get a more accurate figure on that, Naruto-kun," Shizune told him, getting a nod from the blond who relayed the information to the clones.

"And you don't even feel it, do you?" Anko asked.

"Not really."

Anko rolled her eyes. "Kid, you are a walking impossibility, you know that? Do you even know how that jutsu works?" Seeing him shake his head, she continued. "It's banned 'cause it splits your chakra evenly between the clone and the user for as long as the clone is active. That's why you learn what they learn. So in addition to requiring chakra to bring a clone into existence, you have to split your chakra for every clone. For one clone, your chakra is split two ways. For two, three, and so on. You're telling me you can split your chakra a thousand ways and it doesn't bother you?"

"Nope. Oh, the clones say there are six hundred and thirty three copies, well thirty two now since one dispersed so I'd know that. So, what did you want to work on?"

Anko smirked, worrying those around her. Bringing her hands together, she created a clone of her own which went off to snag a Naruto-clone. "Taijutsu. You're going to learn Hebi. ...Though now that I think about it, Hinata-chan will be better at it for sure. She's more flexible and way more fluid than you, but I'll work you into the ground until you can at least bastardize it enough to make it useful."

That said, the original Anko dragged the original Naruto off to use as a punching bag for a few hours. Meanwhile, her clone caught the attention of one of Naruto's. "Come here," she said, drawing the boy's attention. "Have you started learning elemental manipulation yet?"

Naruto looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"Oh damn," Anko groaned. "Ok, tell me you at least know what shape manipulation is."

"Yeah, I use it for rasengan."

"Ok, good. Give me a second will you?" she asked before turning to regard Tsunade. "Why haven't you started him on elemental manipulation yet?"

"I keep forgetting to buy the test sheets," Tsunade admitted.

Anko rolled her eyes and turned back towards the blond. Giving it a moment of thought, she picked a leaf from one of the trees nearby and handed it to the blond. An idea occurred to her and she adopted a sly look before leading the boy further away from the other group. "Elemental affinities vary from person to person, but everyone has the ability to manipulate chakra from every element," she said, essentially lying her ass off. Her theory was that, should she convince Naruto to set his mind towards _creating_ multiple elemental affinities the boy wouldn't stop until he had. After all, he had already done what had previously been assumed impossible before once today, and apparently did so on a regular basis.

The real theory behind elemental manipulation was that each person had one, maybe two affinities they could manipulate and that was it. They could still use jutsu from other elements as long as the elemental manipulation was in the seals and not up to the caster, but they would always be weaker than those of someone who had the affinity for that element. "The five main chakra types are pretty easy to do once you get the hang of it. For fire, you channel your chakra into the leaf and try to burn it. Wind, try to cut. Lightening, you crinkle it. For earth, you dry it out and cause it to crumble. And for water, you try to moisten it. You should disperse and then create another set of clones dedicated just to this exercise," she suggested. "Send another back here when you do."

Meanwhile, Tsunade and Shizune were each with a Hinata—Tsunade with the original trying to teach her the basics of her strength technique and Shizune helping a Hinata-clone,a Naruto-clone, and Isaribi with their book studies. "Ok, activate your Byakugan and watch carefully," Tsunade instructed. Once the girl did so, Tsunade bent over and picked up a large boulder from the ground. She tossed it from hand to hand for a moment before throwing it high into the air and catching it. Once she had caught it, she crushed it between her hands. "Well? What did you see?"

Hinata studied her sensei for a moment longer before deactivating her dojutsu. "I saw... flashes?" she answered, unsure of what exactly it was she had seen.

"Go on," Tsunade nodded.

"They seemed to radiate towards the load-bearing muscle groups," Hinata continued slowly. "There was also something odd about your bone structure. It seemed to have more chakra concentrated around it than usual."

Tsunade nodded again in agreement. "You're on the right track. The key to this exercise is precise chakra control. You have to convince your chakra to move in pulses. It can't just flow like that to the end of your fist if you want to break something. It has to travel through the whole body, enhancing everything at once to be able to handle the strain of moving like that or of bearing a huge weight. In addition to pulsing through the muscle mass, ligaments, and soft tissue you have to use chakra to reinforce your skeletal structure. The technique is useless if you shatter every bone in your arm the moment you try to hit something. For that, you have to coat them with an outer chakra shell and pump chakra into the bones themselves. Essentially, you're making your chakra do all of the work for you, using your body as a frame. And you want the frame you're using—your body, in this instance—to be as strong as possible. So for now, you'll be working on strength and endurance training."

The group continued on in that manner for the rest of the evening until night fell and Tsunade called a halt to their training for the day. After an enormous cloud of smoke blanketed the area for a moment announcing Naruto's dismissal of his clones, he and Hinata dragged themselves over to the camp fire where Shizune was preparing a stew. "From now on, we'll be rotating chore duty," Shizune announced, having already drawn up a schedule for the group to use while they were out. "Here, eat up," she said, spooning stew into bowls and passing them around.

After a subdued meal, the group began to discuss their training schedules for the foreseeable future. "Naruto, keep going with your chakra control exercises for the next week. Once that time passes, I'll review your progress and see if you're ready to start learning the more basic techniques. Hinata, for now you'll be doing mostly strength building exercises. While you're doing that, I want you to have a clone trying to get the basics of my strength technique down. Once I think you understand it well enough to perform the technique, I'll let you practice it on your own while we move on to teaching you basic medical techniques," Tsunade explained.

"What about you?" Naruto asked, finishing off his fourth bowl of stew.

"What about me?"

Naruto shrugged. "Shouldn't you be training too?"

"The kid's got a point," Anko nodded. "Even if you are a sannin, you can't just sit around on your ass all day and let your skills rot."

"Fine," Tsunade grumbled, annoyed at having her slacking called out. "But if I have to do it, then you get to be my punching bag," the older kunoichi smirked, drawing a wince from Anko.

After a moment, Anko returned the older woman's smirk. "Fine. But no super-strength."

"Shit."

"I think I'm going to go to bed," Hinata yawned. Attempting to stand, she fell back to her seat and hissed in pain, one hand reaching around to rub at her back.

"Did you pull a muscle?" Shizune asked, getting a nod from the girl.

After waiting a moment for the two medics of their group to do something, Anko rolled her eyes. "Gee, you guys are really useful huh?"

"Well, there are jutsu to dull pain or heal pulled muscles but—" Shizune started, only to get cut off by Anko holding her hand up.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. She needs to learn how to deal with pain." Deciding to take pity on the girl, Anko scooted over to the smaller girl and sat behind her. "First off, you'll need to take off that jacket. I don't see why you wear the thing in the first place. You've got a great pair of boobs, you should be showing them off, not trying to hide them." Seeing the girl's blush even in the dim light provided by the fire, Anko decided a little more teasing was in order and leaned in closer to the Hyuuga girl before cupping her hand over Hinata's ear. "You should really be showing them off for _Naruto-kun_," she whispered, mimicking the breathy way Hinata would occasionally mumble the boy's name in her sleep.

Somehow managing not to pass out, Hinata asked, "Are you sure? Do you think he would like that?"

Anko nodded. "They really didn't teach you girls anything about seduction in the academy, did they? That class used to be mandatory when I attended." Seeing the smaller girl shake her head in the negative, Anko pretended to give the matter a moment of thought. "You know, if you knew what I know you could have had him ages ago," she suggested. Seeing the hopeful look cross the girl's face, she continued. "I could teach you, as a favor from one kunoichi to another... But you'd owe me."

Hinata nodded quickly. "Anything," she agreed quietly.

Still speaking quietly to the girl, Anko grinned. "Great. Your first lesson starts now. Stand up and take off your jacket slowly. Don't look at him while you do it, look at me."

Standing, the dark-haired girl did so, shrugging out of the lavender colored jacket slowly—though Anko had to admit that the whole effort was almost wasted when the girl winced in pain as her muscles protested—leaving her in only the partial-fishnet armor undershirt favored by most kunoichi and a sport bra. Risking a glance up, Hinata shifted her head just enough to look at the blond boy and found that his face was red in a deep blush. Feeling her own face heat up, she quickly averted her eyes and folded the jacket neatly before placing it on the ground and sitting down on it.

"Not bad," Anko commented softly. "You have his attention, at least. Well, lay down on your stomach and let me see if I can do something about your back." Once the girl had complied, Anko popped her knuckles and set to work employing one of her favorite skills that didn't actually involve killing someone—or occasionally preceded it. Her skilled hands soon had the girl beneath her writhing and groaning softly in pleasure. Glancing up, Anko saw she had the attention of all of her other traveling companions. "What?" she asked, digging into a particularly stubborn knot in the smaller girl's shoulder and getting a high-pitched squeak in response.

"Where did you learn that?" Shizune asked, her interest piqued and ideas quickly beginning to take root.

Anko shrugged, splitting her attention between answering her friends and the quivering puddle of girl-flesh under her fingers. "There are a few kunoichi around my age in the village that don't hate me, and we help each other out when we're in town. When I needed to get plastered after a bad mission, I could usually count on Kurenai or Hana tagging along, Yugao if she wasn't on duty. When Kurenai's brats—not you Hinata, the other two—or that lout Asuma got to be too much for her, she'd come to me. Stuff like that. Stuff like this is like any other skill. With enough practice, you get to be pretty good."

Glancing between Hinata—who had fallen asleep under Anko's hands but the special jonin had yet to stop her attentions—and Tsunade, Shizune sent a sly grin in Naruto's direction. "You know Naruto-kun, a skill like that could really impress a girl..." she suggested. Tsunade's cough at her words sounded suspiciously like a choked-off snort. "And I'm sure Hinata-chan would appreciate having a boyfriend who could _attend_ to her after a hard day."

"But we.. I.. I'm not..." Naruto stammered. Noticing that Shizune looked as though she would burst any moment now, Naruto glared at the woman before turning his attention towards Anko. "Teach me," he demanded, drawing a barely-contained squeal of delight from Shizune.

Anko smirked, finally ceasing the massage she had been giving Hinata and covering the girl's bare back with her jacket. "Why should I?"

The blond thought for a moment before shrugging. "I'll owe you a favor?"

"That'll have to do, I suppose. But don't think for a second that I don't intend to collect," the woman grinned before motioning for the blond to lay down. Naruto had a better idea and created a clone, which then performed a clothed version of the sexy no jutsu. The clone sat in front of Anko and Naruto sat beside her, in a position to watch what Anko's hands were doing. "Hair's in the way," Anko mumbled, brushing the blond pigtails out of her way. Blinking, she grabbed one of them and gave it a tug.

"Ow," Naruto's oiroke-clone complained. "Pull on someone else's hair."

Anko's face went pale as she reached around the front of the blond girl and cupped one of her breasts, giving it an experimental squeeze and drawing a look of confusion from the clone. "Holy shit," she murmured, grabbing the girl's arm and dragging her off into the forest a short distance.

"What's all that about?" Naruto asked, getting shrugs of confusion from both Tsunade and Shizune. A moment later a short scream came from the brush, followed by the sound of flesh hitting flesh. A second after that, there was a similar sound which was accompanied by the sound of a kage bunshin dispersing. Naruto's eyes widened and he blushed. "You perverted crazy-woman! You violated my clone!" he accused, pointing at the woman in question as she walked shakily back out of the bushes.

Anko ignored the blond. "Did any one else know he could do that?"

"Oiroke?" Tsunade asked.

Shizune nodded. "It had become something like an urban legend that it was the one jutsu that could completely shut down Sandaime before he died."

Anko shook her head. "No, not that. Well, that's part of it, but not the important part. Well, it is it's just..." Taking a deep breath, Anko sat back down. "Ok, what's henge?"

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "It's a combat genjutsu. It's just an illusion. Anything else would require altering your body mass, internal organs, and everything else. As a medic, I can assure you that it's impossible. So that's what you're so worked up over, his henge? Was it that good?"

"See, that's the thing. I thought it was impossible too," Anko nodded.

"'Thought?'" Shizune asked.

Catching on, Tsunade turned her attention to the younger blond. "Make another clone and do it again," she told him.

Rolling his eyes, the boy did so, only for the clone to be dragged off into the underbrush by three kunoichi. A moment later, he heard a short scuffle taking place. "Hey, stop trying to take off my shirt!" the clone yelled.

"Be still," the boy heard Tsunade order back.

"Keep your hands out of my pants!" the yell had gone into the higher registers more along the lines of a scream. Its scream cut off in the middle and Naruto again blushed.

The trio of older kunoichi came out of the brush, Tsunade and Shizune wearing matching looks of amazement while Anko's was one of smug triumph. "I told you so."

"How? What? But it's impossible," Tsunade mumbled in confusion, sitting down heavily and shooting the boy a look he couldn't interpret.

"What?" Naruto asked, more confused than ever.

"Naruto-kun, where did you learn henge?" Shizune asked, causing the blond scratch the back of his head in embarrassment.

"In the academy like everyone else," he answered. "I don't see what the big deal is. I mean, it's the same thing everyone else does."

"What's henge for?" Anko asked, trying another approach.

Naruto shrugged. "It's the transformation jutsu. I don't know, maybe it lets you _transform_," he answered sarcastically.

Anko rolled her eyes and stood, urging the blond to as well. "You see how much taller I am that you, right?" she asked. Getting a nod, she performed a sealless henge and transformed into a double of Hinata. "Now, wave your hand above my head," Anko instructed in her own voice.

Doing so, Naruto was surprised to encounter what felt like a shoulder. After a moment, he just sat back down. "Maybe you just suck at henge?"

Anko let the illusion drop while Tsunade finally got her bearings back. "How did you learn to do henge? Did Iruka teach it?"

Thinking back to his days in the academy, Naruto nodded. "I missed that class, but I think so. I got there late so I had to stand out in the hall holding up buckets. I heard him telling everyone what it was supposed to do, but they called me to the office to send me home that day, so I just spent the rest of the day looking over my text books and trying to figure out how to do it. All my books were second-hand though, and someone had spilled white out on that page so I only got about half the seals. I just sort of figured the rest out on my own."

Shizune raised an eyebrow. "Naruto, there are only three seals to the technique. By the time they become genin, most students only need the ram seal for it and stop using the others."

"Wait, so I used twice as many seals as I needed to?"

Anko nodded. "Here, watch," she said, then slowly performed the three seals necessary for henge. "Got those?" she asked, getting a nod. "So try it."

Forming the seals while applying what he knew was the proper amount of chakra for henge, the boy was surprised when nothing happened. He tried again several more times before giving up for the moment. "Ok, if what I do is different, what is henge supposed to be?"

"As Tsunade-sama said, a combat genjutsu. Like normal bunshin, it is supposed to produce an illusion that the user syncs to the movement of their body and controls," Shizune explained.

"But I used it in front of Iruka-sensei all the time and he never said anything."

"Iruka's only a chuunin," Anko answered, rolling her eyes. "Who else knows about this?"

"Gamabunta for sure, since I used it to transform him into Kyuubi when we fought Gaara," Naruto answered. "Ero-sennin maybe. No one's ever said anything about it though, so I don't know."

"Naruto, I want you to promise me you won't teach this jutsu to anyone outside of this group unless one of us agrees," Tsunade told the boy. "It's too useful and dangerous a technique to let it spread."

The boy shrugged again. "Whatever. So, when are you going to teach me how to do that thing you were doing to Hinata-chan?" he asked, turning his attention back to Anko.

"Teach you massage? Kid, for that technique I would bear your children," she answered seriously. Naruto didn't know whether to take that as a threat or a compliment, but nodded and agreed to trade techniques, the other two awake kunoichi requesting to learn the technique as well.

And not too far away from the group, their silent watcher had quietly left the area. Once he was certain that he had not drawn the group's attention, he quickly pulled out a scroll and a brush, using them to create a bird from ink. The bird was instructed to deliver a message to Konoha and return once it got a reply. His master would want to hear of Anko's failure and now that he was certain of their next destination, he could report that to his master as well. Included in his message was a request for further instructions. Deciding that his message was satisfactory, he sent the bird on its way and returned to his position watching the group.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** I borrowed Perfect Lionheart's version of Naruto's S-ranked henge for this story, mostly because I agree with it. It's only been used in battle a few times in the anime so far, once to turn Gamabunta into Kyuubi and later by Kiba and Akamaru for the two headed wolf form, and only the Kyuubi-bunta form takes a physical transformation to explain it. No, wait, Enma uses it once like that too, but that would only mean two cases where it takes a physical transformation to explain it. Besides, they don't use it enough for it to be really useful as a physical transformation. Even if you can disrupt it with a single hit, that would still allow the caster to transform into pretty much anything they can imagine. Nine times out of ten, it's used like a combat-ready genjutsu like the normal bunshin and only a few people show any real innovation in using it as anything else. Seriously, if it were an actual transformation—or rather if they used it as such—everyone would turn into birds to travel, fish to swim and breathe water, a random peasant to infiltrate an enemy village, etc. And if he asks me to, I'll take it out.

This chapter was pretty short compared to the others, but that's where I felt I should end it since I covered what I wanted to. The group's training, agreeing to trade techniques and contracts, Anko leading Hinata further down the road of perversion, and Naruto picking up massage—which has been used in a few fics, but stands out most in Chunin Exam Day—since that one is way too amusing a technique not to have on hand later. The henge thing was a spur of the moment thing that wrote itself, but I'll see where it takes me. If it leads to Naruto getting molested by a group of girls in the woods, then I think it's an even trade-off for using a borrowed version.


	6. End of a Term

**The Missing Hokage**

**06: End of a Term**

* * *

The sun dawned on another day in Konoha and the shrill blaring of an alarm clock greeted Haruno Sakura as she roused herself from a restless night of sleep. Glaring at the clock, she shut it off and crawled out of bed heading towards her bathroom. After taking a shower and taking care of the other necessities, she made her way downstairs and out of her parents' home to the bridge where Kakashi-sensei would meet her later that day—late as usual. On the way, she looked around the village and once more reflected on how quiet it had been in the last week or so. With Naruto gone, things around town seemed to have slowed down.

Leaving the main roads, Sakura cut across several lesser traveled paths on her way to Team 7's old meeting place. The thought of her blond teammate had soured her mood immensely. When it was announced that Naruto had been banished from Konoha, Sakura had initially been elated. She did not think to question that no reason was given for the banishment, and why should she? It was obvious he was getting what he deserved for failing to bring Sasuke back and getting into a fight with her other teammate at the Valley of the End. It had been her belief at the time that that was what had drove Sasuke to make up his mind to leave them all behind.

Now though, she was beginning to have doubts—she even felt sort of bad that she she'd been so happy to hear the blond had been kicked out. She was slowly coming to realize that despite the way she had treated him, Naruto had always been there for her. She hardly spoke to any of the other children from the academy any more, and all of her so-called friends had suddenly found themselves too busy for her. Even when she'd treated him like crap, Naruto had always had time for her, always somehow managed to lift her spirits when the constant cold-shoulder from her other teammate became too much. And now that he was gone, it seemed that Konoha now lacked something vital that it had taken for granted before. "This sucks," she grumbled, leaning against the familiar bridge railing and waiting for her sensei.

"Anything in particular?" a voice asked from behind her.

Sakura turned her head and found Kakashi crouching atop the bridge railing, familiar orange book in hand and seemingly ignoring her for it. "You're early," she deadpanned, no enthusiasm in her words.

Kakashi's eye curved up in the familiar shape she had come to recognize as a smile and he hopped off the bridge, motioning for her to follow him towards one of the training fields. "Well, the person we're going to meet wouldn't appreciate it too much if I let you show up late. Don't worry though, I'll be extra late tomorrow."

"Who are we going to meet?" Sakura asked, interest piqued. She noted that they were not heading for their normal training field.

Kakashi turned the page in his book and giggled quietly at the page for a moment before answering. "Well, word has it that Kurenai-san is short one kunoichi, and since I'm short two shinobi it was decided that you would train with Team 8 for a while."

"You're just handing me off to someone else?"

Kakashi shrugged. "It happens on occasion, when part of a team dies or decides they can't cut it as ninja any more. Or in this case."

"Will you still be my sensei?" Sakura asked in trepidation. Kakashi was the only person left of her original team and she didn't want to face losing another teammate so soon after losing Sasuke and Naruto.

"I'll be around if you need me," Kakashi answered, easily able to interpret her worry. "Relax, Kurenai's a good sensei. You'll be in good hands."

"Where is their third teammate anyway? Wasn't that Hyuuga Hinata?"

"Yeah, she was," he nodded. "It's not common knowledge, but she left Konoha along with Tsunade-sama and Shizune when the council tried to have him exiled."

"Then they're missing-nin? Traitors?" the girl asked, not sure how to feel about that.

Kakashi shook his head and turned the page of his book again. "That's hard to say. Before she left, Tsunade-sama released all of them from the service of Konoha and Fire Country but left them their ranks. For all intents and purposes, that makes them ninja in the service of no lord or country. It would even leave Tsunade-sama with her rank of Godaime Hokage. From what I hear, the council is trying to fight it but legally there isn't much that can be done against them, as now they technically belong to a nation of their own and any action against them could incite a war. Considering that it would be a war against four people, it sounds a bit silly but it's what the guys that interpret the laws are trying to figure out. And since one of them is a sannin, well, it would take more effort than it's worth at the moment to pursue any kind of action anyway."

"Do you think Tsunade-sama will come back? What will happen if she doesn't?

"She probably isn't coming back unless the council rescinds the order to exile Naruto," a woman's voice answered from up ahead, drawing Sakura's attention to Kurenai and the two remaining members of Team 8.

Kakashi nodded his agreement to her words. "Well, how about I let you four get acquainted. Sakura, if you need me for anything you know where to find me."

Once Kakashi had disappeared in a swirl of leaves, Kurenai smiled at Sakura. "My name is Yuuhi Kurenai and I'm sure you already know Shino, Kiba, and Akamaru. However, since this will be our first day working together, why don't we all introduce ourselves? I'll start."

* * *

It was nearly two in the afternoon before Tsunade called the group to a halt and they made camp for the evening. Grabbing a Naruto-clone after the boy had again produced a massive number of clones, Anko dragged him off to the side. Upon waking that morning, she had decided to make it her personal mission to find something the boy _couldn't_ do and after taking part of the day during their cross-country toad ride to put her mind to it, she had come up with a challenge for the boy. "You're not the original, are you?" she asked.

"Nope, I'm over there," the boy pointed towards one of the Narutos, this one going through a series of stretches while the others were dividing themselves up to practice chakra control exercises and trying to find an elemental affinity.

"Good," Anko nodded, digging into her pocket and pulling out a set of keys. "I need you to do me a favor. I want you to run back to my apartment in Konoha and get my coffee cup for me. It's black and has a green leaf on it, and it's the only one like it in the place so it shouldn't be too hard to find. And I shouldn't need to say this, but you should try not to be spotted going in and out. If you break my cup, I'll break your fingers. Got it?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'll meet up with you in Otafuku Gai," the boy said, taking off into the trees.

Turning back to the clones, Anko produced a copy of herself and sent it off to monitor a group of clones that had found a nearby stream while she joined the original Naruto in warming up for the spar that was to come. Sitting down near the stream, Anko's clone studied the group of Naruto clones there for a few moments before asking, "Ok, I'm lost. What are you doing?"

One of the Narutos stopped what he was doing and answered while the others continued their work. "I'm working on the water repelling exercise, trying to get it to work while using water walking. So far, every time I try..." the blond trailed off as one of his counterparts slipped under the water. "That happens."

Nodding thoughtfully, Anko asked, "Why not try just extending the water repelling field above the level of your feet?'

Naruto scratched the side of his head and grinned. "You mean using both at the same time, but just on different parts of the body?" Seeing Anko nod, the boy shook his head. "I tried that already and it works, but that's not what I'm going for."

"Oh?" Anko asked, raising an eyebrow. Considering everything she had seen from the boy so far, this could prove interesting.

"Yeah, I'm trying to get it to repel all over." Seeing her look of confusion, the boy sent one of the other clones to stand on the shore and the clone she'd been speaking with pulled out a shuriken and threw it at his counterpart. Expecting to see a clone explode into smoke, Anko was somewhat amazed to instead see the shuriken bounce harmlessly off the blond, repelled by a thin layer of chakra. "Kyuubi's chakra does the same thing," the boy explained. "I thought maybe I could do it without using the fox's power."

Anko whistled before pulling out a kunai and flinging it at the clone. Even seeing the kunai coming and with an obvious sheen of chakra around its body, the clone was still dispelled when the kunai pierced the chakra barrier around it. "That's about as hard as I normally throw them," the woman mused. "It looked like it almost deflected it too. Do you think you could ever make it deflect larger stuff, or stuff thrown harder?"

The boy shrugged. "Maybe. It takes a lot of chakra to hold the field up and I haven't tested it against jutsu."

"We can do that."

"Yeah, but even if I could just ignore everything thrown at me, I'd probably be one of the few people actually able to use this. Like I said, it uses a lot of chakra."

Anko gave it some thought before replying. "Well, I don't see why you couldn't just make the area the technique covers smaller. If you did, it wouldn't require nearly as much chakra."

Naruto nodded. "That would be fine for weapons, but what about jutsu?"

The kunoichi shrugged. "Some jutsu couldn't be blocked with it anyway, unless you were putting a greater amount of chakra into the shield than the guy throwing the jutsu—things like Kakashi's raikiri. And again, you're about the only person around with the chakra to spare for it. It's too bad you can't just share it around."

The clone blinked. "Why not?"

"Well, because it's..." Anko froze, eyes going wide and her mind running a mile a minute. While a normal ninja wouldn't want to share their chakra with another, there were other types of ninja who did all the time. "Holy fuck," she whispered, grinning up at the boy. "Med-nin give chakra infusions all the time! And it just so happens that we have the best med-nin in all the elemental nations leading this merry little band of misfits."

Naruto nodded, a grin spreading across his own face. "And if I could share my chakra with you guys, there'd be less of a chance that you'd get hurt on a mission."

"Awe, you worried about little old me?"

The boy rolled his eyes. "You can fend for yourself," he snickered. A thought occurred and he shook his head. "No, it wouldn't work well. I'd have to be near whoever I was sharing chakra with that way probably since that's how most of her techniques work, and it would probably have to be my real body doing the sharing."

Anko frowned, her good mood slightly dampened. "You're right, any clone would be vulnerable to taking a hit and having the connection cut before it could share enough chakra. Although..." Anko looked at the boy thoughtfully. "What about a seal?"

"A seal?"

The woman nodded. "Yeah, seals are used for storing stuff all the time. I don't see why you couldn't use it to store just chakra."

"Tsunade-baachan does," Naruto pointed out. "The one on her forehead stores it until she needs it, but it uses her own chakra for that."

"Ok, what about... um," Anko scrunched up her face in concentration, drawing a laugh out of the blond boy. After a moment, she considered the seal on her shoulder. "A summon maybe?"

"A seal to summon chakra?" the boy asked, getting a nod. "Do you know anything about fuuinjutsu?"

Anko nodded. "I know enough to get you started, but you'd need Jiraiya's help for the really good stuff."

"This kind of seal sounds familiar," the boy pointed out, getting a nod from Anko.

"It should. The cursed seals Orochimaru puts on his little experiments works kind of like Tsunade's. I don't know if they actually draw on his chakra though. I doubt it. If anything, they link ours to his so he can draw ours out."

"'Ours?'" the boy asked. Biting her upper lip in trepidation, Anko pulled down the collar of her jacket and shirt to expose the seal on her shoulder. "Oh, crap. Sorry, I didn't know—"

The kunoichi shook her head, covering the mark back up. "I know. Don't worry about it, kid. After all, you've got one of your own you can't get rid of."

The boy nodded, moving off the water to sit next to the woman. After a moment, he perked up and asked, "So... seals?"

Anko laughed, tousling his hair. "You're impatient, aren't you?"

"Well, I've finally found someone who actually wants to teach me something. You guys don't screw around like Kakashi-sensei did, or just hand me something to do and go hit the bars or peek on women like Ero-sennin."

"How do you know I don't go hit the bars and peek on women?" Anko smirked, gaining an eye-roll for her trouble.

"Just shut up and teach me how to seal," the boy said, sticking his tongue out at her.

Laughing, Anko had to resist the urge to swat the boy as doing so would just make her have to go grab another clone to get anything done. "So you only like me for my brains huh? Well, I suppose it's better than nothing."

Elsewhere in the camp, Tsunade and a Hinata were working on the chakra-manipulation phase of Tsunade's technique. "Just relax, I don't expect you to get it right away. Hell, if you did I'd start to worry," Tsunade coached the small kunoichi.

Hinata nodded, again focusing her expanded vision inward to watch her internal flow of chakra. "I am used to sending out my chakra in sharp bursts, but making it pulse is turning out to be harder than I thought it would," the girl admitted.

"How long did it take you to learn how to use the jyuuken?" Tsunade asked.

Hinata frowned, thinking back to the unhappy times after her mother died when her father wanted nothing more from her than to become the next heir to their clan, molded in his image. "Once I understood what chakra was and how to use it, it took nearly a month before I could even push it out of my finger-tips."

"Only a month?" Tsunade asked, mildly impressed. It usually took far longer for one to attain chakra control of that level, and it was even more impressive for one so young.

"A month too long for him," Hinata murmured. "My sister could do the technique after three weeks. Neji could perform the technique after one week and had mastered it within a month."

Tsunade shook her head. "You really shouldn't compare your progress to that of other people, especially them. Most people learn at their own rate and trying to rush things only leads to more disappointments at best and hurting yourself in the process at the worst. One of these days, I'm going to personally kick Hiashi's ass for not being the father to you that you needed," the woman said, then smirked, remembering something that may just cheer the girl up. "Before I left though, I left a little surprise for the bastard. Let's see him talk his way out of that."

Hinata smiled, returning to her practice. "I can't make my chakra pulse yet, but I think I've figured out how to make it move in waves."

"That's a good start," Tsunade complimented. "It took forever before I was even able to do that, and at the time I didn't have any idea what I was doing with the technique. I was just experimenting with my chakra to see what I could do with it and if I could build better chakra control. The first time it pulsed and I broke something, that's when I got the idea to use it to enhance my taijutsu. It took me a few years of playing around with it before I had a workable technique."

In another part of the camp, a Hinata lay on the ground beside a tree where another copy of the girl was currently walking up and down the tree and reading from a medical text. Nearby, Shizune was giving a lesson to another Hinata, one of the Narutos, Isaribi, and an Anko. Another Anko sat beside what she assumed to be Hinata's original body laying on the ground.

"Ah damn, where do I even start," Anko grumbled, wondering why she agreed to this in the first place. _'Oh, right. Because they're fun to watch,'_ the woman thought. Not that she was doing any of this out of any sense of obligation or just to be a nice person—that just wasn't her style.. or so she told herself. Looking the girl over, Anko decided to start simple. "First off, like I told you last night, you need to lose the jacket—or at least only wear it when we're on a mission."

"Why?" Hinata asked, yawning. Sustaining multiple clones took a lot of effort and at the moment, she was stretched nearly to her limit. After making three other copies of herself, she had just enough chakra left over for the clone practicing with Tsunade and the one doing the tree climbing exercise in the hopes of expanding her small chakra reserves. Besides, she had already done her physical training for the day, so it wouldn't hurt to rest for a while until she had enough chakra to do more.

"Because boys like boobs," Anko answered, grinning. "And I'm pretty sure Naruto's a boy most of the time."

"Most of the time?"

"Oh right, you weren't awake for that," Anko nodded, then went on to explain their discovery the previous night.

From her place on the ground, Hinata nodded. "I already knew about that," she said before taking Anko's advice and sitting up long enough to remove her jacket and fold it up before laying back down and using it as a pillow.

"You're kind of lazy when you want to be, you know," Anko pointed out, laughing quietly at the smaller kunoichi's expense.

Hinata narrowed her eyes at the older woman in a half-hearted glare. "Not everyone here has enough chakra to create their own personal army," she returned dryly.

Anko nodded. "True, true. So, back to the lesson... You need to be more outgoing, more forward if you will. Learn to speak up for yourself, not be afraid to ask for things, or to say 'no.' From what Tsunade's told me, you've come a long way since you first decided to leave—which was a huge leap in the right direction in and of itself—but you're still carrying around a lot of your old bad habits. The jacket, for starters. You dress and act like you're trying to hide yourself away from the world, and if you ever want someone like Naruto to really notice you, that's going to have to stop. You don't have to take it to extremes like I did, but you could try for something like Kurenai or Hana..."

Imagining her former sensei's usual manner of dress and what Naruto's potential reaction to _her_ dressed like that would be, Hinata blushed. "L-like Kurenai-sensei?"

"Oh, that shit's got to stop—the blushing and the stuttering every time someone says something or you think something the least little bit suggestive," Anko said, then narrowed her eyes at the younger girl. "You _have_ had The Talk haven't you?" she asked and took the younger girl's blush and shy nod as a yes.

"Kurenai-sensei dismissed Team 8 for the day when I first started having my..." The girl bit her lip, trying not to blush more than she already was. "She explained everything for me," she finished lamely.

Anko nodded. "Sounds like something Kurenai would do. Speaking of, when are you due and do you have supplies or do we need to find a town?"

"Soon," Hinata answered quietly. "I have my own supplies. Can we please stop talking about embarrassing bodily functions?"

Smirking, Anko shook her head. "No, I think that's just what you need. Well, that or a good lay," she said, glancing suggestively towards one of the blond clones sitting only a short distance away. When she turned back to the girl, she found her once again unconscious—a small trail of blood leaking from one nostril. "That shit has _got_ to stop soon too. I'll never get to see any of the good stuff if this keeps up."

As dark approached, Tsunade called the group's training to an end for the day and they began wandering in from what they'd been doing. "Rabbit?" Anko asked, looking at the animals skewered and hanging over the fire. "That's the best you could do?"

Tsunade growled but resisted the urge to hurt the younger woman. "You think you can do better, you'll get your chance tomorrow night."

Smirking, Anko nodded before glancing off to the side. Spotting what she assumed was the original Naruto—as his clones were still screwing around all around their camp—walking into camp, she nudged Hinata in the side and directed her attention to the blond. "Here he comes. Try to ignore him for now and see what he does."

The younger girl nodded, then stretched her hands over her head as Anko had suggested earlier, one eye cracked open to observe the blond. What she had not expected was for the boy—who was obviously still practicing the water repelling technique—to stumble and fall half into their camp fire. "Naruto-kun!" she cried out at the same time Naruto yelled, "Shit!"

The boy rolled out of the fire and quickly began patting himself down to make sure none of his clothes were on fire. Ignoring the laughter coming from the older kunoichi and Hinata's concerned look, the boy narrowed his eyes for a moment before holding his hand closer to the fire. When it began to heat up, he pulled it away and frowned. "That's right, fire is hot," Anko snickered. Naruto rolled his eyes at the woman before shoving his hand into the flame and leaving it there. "What the hell are you doing?"

After holding it in the fire for nearly a minute, the blond pulled his unblemished hand out and waved at Anko. "Found a new chakra control exercise," he grinned.

"Oh god damn, only you could do something that stupid and get something useful out of it—not to mention not coming out of it scarred for life," Tsunade grumbled. "So, what did you manage to screw up this time?"

"I haven't screwed up anything, you senile old hag!"

Shizune quickly caught her sensei's arm before she could rise and go hurt the blond boy. "What Tsunade-shishou meant is that since we've known you, nearly everything you've done has defied the laws of physics as ninja know them."

Naruto shrugged. "I was doing the water repelling thing and didn't get hurt when I fell in, so I'm trying to figure out of I can use this to get a feel for learning to use fire jutsu. That, and it was a different experience trying to keep my hand from burning than keeping water off, so maybe I can use it as a chakra control exercise. At this point, I'd be willing to sit under a waterfall or sift through sand or something equally silly if it means getting more control."

Nodding at his reasoning, Shizune began digging through her bag before coming up with one of the books Tsunade had pilfered from the Hokage's Library. Tossing it to the boy, she said, "This may help. There are a few more like it in the books Tsunade-sama brought with us, but this one is the easiest to understand. It's a book on intermediate chakra control and manipulation theory. I've actually been meaning to give this to you for a while now, but I've been more focused on teaching you the basics of being a med-nin. I guess it kind of slipped my mind that your chakra control is as bad as it is, since even with such bad control you can still perform most jutsu well."

"It looks like we'll be getting back to Otafuku Gai before too long," Tsunade said after they had finished their meal. "We'll probably get there earlier than we expected, so we can stay there for a while until it gets close to time to start heading up towards Neck Country."

"You just want to piss our money away gambling," Naruto pointed out, getting a round of nods from everyone else there save for Isaribi—who didn't know of Tsunade's bad habits like everyone else—and Tsunade herself.

* * *

It was early the following morning that a bird made of paper and ink found its way into Danzou's office. Having traveled 'as the crow flies' and being only a chakra construct that did not require rest or sleep, it had been able to get to Konoha much faster than even normal a messenger bird. The bird unfolded and spread itself thin, the ink moving into position to form the coded message than Danzou's agent in the field had sent. Reading the missive over, Danzou frowned. "It seems Anko has betrayed us," he said, getting no response from the mask-wearing kunoichi standing behind and to the side of him. After a moment of thought, he coded a reply giving the agent instructions to simply follow and monitor the group's progress for now. When he finished, the message reformed into the bird it had been before and took off out the open window towards its creator. "Go tell Homura to gather the council," he ordered, getting a crisp salute and a puff of smoke indicating shunshin as his only response.

After completing her task, the purple-haired ANBU found a secluded place to secure and began writing out a pair of messages, each coded differently. The first was a message to Jiraiya relaying the details of the message that Danzou had just received and a warning that the council would soon be up to no good again. The second message was written in a code that only four people in Konoha would understand easily and it contained a copy of the message to be sent to Jiraiya along with a warning to the recipient to avoid Konoha and its shinobi for the time being. When she was finished, she tied the second message to the leg of a messenger bird and sent it on its way. The first letter, she would be delivering with a dead-drop shortly near the hot springs, as she had just gotten off duty.

Later that day, the council met in a full emergency session, all of its members save for the Hokage present. "This is not the normally appointed time for a meeting of this council. Why have you called us here?" Hyuuga Hiashi asked, getting straight to the point.

"We have called you all here today to discuss the matter of Tsunade's little band of traitors," Koharu answered sourly, somewhat annoyed that their carefully laid plans were falling down around their ears.

Homura continued where his old teammate had left off. "It has come to our attention that the Special Jonin Mitarashi Anko has recently abandoned Konoha to join Tsunade's group. This has lead us to believe that they have become a potential risk to the security of our village. We can not afford to lose any more ninja to a group of traitors." Standing, he announced loudly, "I do hereby propose a Kill On Sight order for any ninja currently in Tsunade's group and anyone caught affiliating with them."

"Seconded," Danzou said quickly, barely containing his smirk.

"All for this order?"

"Whoa! Hold it just a minute here," Inuzuka Tsume spoke up before the voting could commence. "What the hell are you talking about? This is our Hokage you're suggesting we attack, not to mention her apprentices—yes, _apprentices_ since she accepted two more, in writing, before she left. Have you lost your minds?"

"In that case," Koharu grinned, standing. "I do hereby propose that Senju Tsunade be removed from the office of Hokage for extreme dereliction of duty and this council appoint a new Hokage. Tsunade has abandoned her duty to this village for the Kyuubi-brat and we have given her ample time to see the folly in her decision and return to us. Also—due to her foolishness—missions are not being properly assigned or are outright being canceled because we are unable to carry them out in a timely manner. Most of our higher-ranking shinobi are currently out on dangerous missions that would normally be assigned to a team just to keep us in the black, since she absconded with nearly half the funds in the treasury before she left! She has not returned, so this is the only choice left to us."

"Seconded," both Homura and Danzou spoke up.

"All in favor?" Koharu asked, raising her own hand along with Danzou and Homura. After nearly a minute of contemplation, several other hands went up. "All opposed?" she asked. Immediately, the hands of the Inuzuka, Aburame, Nara, and Akimichi seats went up along with several others. After a quick count, Koharu nodded. "Well, the verdict is clear then. This council does hereby remove Senju Tsunade from the office of Hokage."

"And on the first matter," Danzou reminded, raising his hand. "All in favor of issuing a Kill On Sight order for Tsunade's group?"

Nearly half of the hands in the room went up, but this time they were outnumbered. Frowning, Homura announced, "The matter is decided then. There will be no Kill On Sight order. On to the next matter of business. With Tsunade's dismissal from office, we must appoint a new Hokage. I propose that Danzou take the job."

"Hold on a second," a lazy-sounding voice spoke up slowly. "Tsunade already appointed a successor," Nara Shikaku pointed out.

"Jiraiya has already refused the position of Hokage once," Koharu glared at the Nara, who remained unfazed. "I see no need to contact him for something he has already refused."

"Any decision he made regarding the position of Godaime Hokage is irrelevant to his nomination for the position of Rokudaime Hokage," Aburame Shibi pointed out. "He must be made aware of the situation and allowed to make a decision on the matter. Should he decline the office, then this council will vote to elect a new Hokage."

"Fine," Koharu growled out. "Someone go get Jiraiya here so he can refuse and we can get on with business."

"You're awfully anxious to get a new Hokage into office, just so long as it isn't Jiraiya. Why the rush?" Tsume asked, smirking at Koharu who glowered in return.

It was nearly an hour later when the slow clack of geta against wooden floor announced Jiraiya's arrival before he pushed open the door and looked around. "You wanted to see me?" he asked, annoyed at having had his research time cut short. He had just gotten his eyes on a beautiful purple-haired kunoichi in the hot springs too...

"Tsunade's been dismissed and we're looking for a new Hokage. They want Danzou to do it," Tsume answered quickly.

"Tsunade-sama appointed you her successor," Akimichi Chouza elaborated.

Jiraiya blinked. While he was aware of his appointment as Tsunade's successor, he was surprised that the council had been able to move this quickly to have her dismissed and start looking for a replacement. And then what they were asking of him actually registered. "You want me to what?"


	7. Hokage for a Day

**The Missing Hokage**

**07: Hokage for a Day**

* * *

The group woke with the sunrise and, as he had for the past few days, Naruto summoned a group of horse-sized toads for them to ride on. During the ride, he was abnormally quiet and it was beginning to worry his traveling companions. They had been so busy recently that he'd hardly had time to actually give their situation any real thought. Now though, with nothing to do but ride until Tsunade decided they'd gone far enough that day, he could take the time to actually think about things.

After taking the time during their down time sailing between Fire Country and Sea Country to figure out why Tsunade, Shizune, and Hinata had agreed to leave with him it had taken Anko beating the idea into his head—literally—for him to realize that they actually cared about him. And while the boy could be dense or a bit of an idiot on occasion, he was nowhere near as stupid as his actions and attitude would lead one to believe. The problem was that he had little to no experience dealing with people, since the adults of Konoha had tried and for the most part succeeded in isolating him from the rest of the village.

By the time he'd gotten old enough to question it or try to fight back, it had been too late and the boy had nearly no idea how to interact with people. Latching onto Sakura—who, aside from Ino, was the most popular girl in their class at the time—had been an act of desperation in the hope that if he spent enough time around her eventually others would notice him as well. This was what had also triggered his acting out against the village that ignored him by trying to make himself impossible to ignore. He began pulling pranks and generally being loud and obnoxious, and when he had received his first orange outfit as an anonymous birthday present it had been the most perfect thing in the world for being noticed, being a solid bright orange that drew the eye like nothing else—that, and no one else in the village could claim to have a similar outfit, nor would they want to.

After time, acting and dressing like an idiot had become second nature to the boy. This did not help his studies any, which were already hindered by his inability to read nearly any of the material. It wasn't until Iruka became their sensei and started forcing Naruto to attend review sessions after class that he began to understand half of the things that were being discussed at the time. By then, it had been too late to fix anything and he had failed his first genin exam, bumping him down from the class with Team Gai and putting him in the class with Sasuke and the others for over a year and a half since the academy usually graduated genin before the end of the school term. That had stopped when he'd been moved down a class and Iruka decided the class wouldn't be ready in time for the usual genin exams and so had postponed them for six months—and his hunch had proved true when over half the class failed the the exams at the normal time that Iruka had let them take just to prove his point.

And now that Naruto finally had not one but several people who actually _wanted_ him to learn something—and who weren't forced to fight him to make him learn it because he was too embarrassed and stubborn to have to review material he should have gotten earlier—he was finally able to start becoming a serious shinobi. Looking back on himself even as recently as the chuunin exam, Naruto realized that he'd been a joke at the time and if it weren't for Kyuubi—indirectly forcing his chakra reserves to surpass nearly everyone in their village and directly by allowing him to use its youki—he'd be dead several times over by now. And even that hadn't stopped Sasuke from going to Orochimaru out of a desire to avenge his family by killing his brother and a willingness to use any means necessary to get there.

And on the subject of the Uchiha, Naruto was a little lost. Surpassing Sasuke and showing everyone just how great he could be if given the chance had become his goal since being put on Team 7. Except that hadn't happened. Sasuke had always been one step ahead of him—even Sakura had been ahead of him where it really mattered. At the time, all he'd really had going for him was more chakra and more stamina than any of his teammates including Kakashi-sensei. And their cycloptic jonin-sensei had been pretty lazy about teaching them anything. Mostly their team went out and completed missions as 'team building' exercises, Kakashi more concerned with getting them to work together than improving their individual skills. The only time he had really taught them anything useful had been in Wave, and that had been because they were facing a potential rematch with Zabuza and Haku at the time.

During the chuunin exams, Kakashi had taken Sasuke to train him how to use his Sharingan and had handed Naruto off to Ebisu, who wanted nothing to do with the boy and would have ignored him if he hadn't been ordered to help by the old man. Jiraiya had taken over his training and the boy had learned more in the month before the final stage of the chuunin exam than he had in all the time since becoming a genin—no, even before that including most of his academy years where Iruka wasn't his sensei. But even the perverted sage had been a lazy ass about training—preferring to peek on naked girls and having to be constantly bribed with sexy no jutsu to convince him to focus his attention on training the blond for more than five minutes at a time. But now, he was traveling with a group of people who actually took their training seriously.

Tsunade was brilliant when it came to medical jutsu, even if she could be a bit absent-minded at times the woman knew her stuff and knew how to hold his attention long enough to teach it. Shizune was no less brilliant, having more book-knowledge just waiting to be taught so long as he asked the right questions. Anko was a godsend—in the short time since she had joined, she had given him more ideas for improving his lousy chakra control than he'd ever had. And she was no slouch when it came to taijutsu and general physical training either. Even Hinata had been more help than some of his past instructors—she had given him a new chakra control exercise and always patiently explained any of the material they were learning that he didn't understand.

Thinking of Hinata brought with it another whole set of problems that the boy didn't know how to handle at the moment. The girl was nice, way friendlier than Sakura had ever been at her nicest, and didn't get upset over every little thing he said or did. She was pretty too—even more so than he'd thought, having gotten a better look at her without the jacket she wore full time hiding everything from view. And while dealing with people as anything other than a happy-go-lucky idiot may not have been his strongest skill, the boy was neither stupid nor unobservant. He had recognized her last night as the girl he'd seen dancing on the water on his mission with Team 8—he had to admit that he was pretty dumb to have not realized it sooner—and that had lead to his inadvertent dive into their fire. Well, at least some good had come out of that.

It was that, Shizune's little hints, and Anko _again_ literally beating the idea into his head that he had come to the realization that she liked him. Not just liked him as a friend, but actually _liked_ him, maybe even loved him. And he didn't know how to respond to that. He'd never even known what love was until meeting Tsunade and Shizune and getting a small dose of it from them every now and then, but it was nothing like what he had seen from some of the couples around Konoha when they thought no one was watching—or just didn't care—and what he suspected Hinata wanted from him. He wouldn't know what to do with a girlfriend even if he had one. All that time spent asking Sakura out was mostly either for attention or out of habit. And then there was the fact that she knew about the fox—had known for some time, apparently—and didn't care. She saw him as Uzumaki Naruto, not as Kyuubi no Kitsune, not even as its jailer. Just Naruto. And that was perhaps the most wonderful, most frightening thing about her.

"You ok up there?" Anko asked from her position behind him. They were sharing a trio of toads since that was easier and less noticeable than half a dozen of the brightly colored animals jumping all over the forests of Fire Country. "You're being too quiet and it's beginning to worry some of us. We're starting to wonder if we should start expecting a prank soon."

"Nah, I'm not planning any pranks today," Naruto said, turning his head enough to shoot her and the rest of Team Hokage a grin. "I'm working on a secret jutsu."

"Oh really?" Anko asked, not buying it but willing to let the boy bullshit his way out of the situation. "What kind of jutsu?"

"The secret kind," Naruto answered, ducking the woman's half-hearted swat at his head.

"If we ride the rest of today instead of stopping to train, we can be in Otafuku Gai before lunch tomorrow," Tsunade called from her place on a toad behind Isaribi. "Do we keep going or stop?"

"Keep going, we'll just find a place to stay and kill time in town until we need to leave," Naruto called back, getting nods from Anko and Hinata.

"Well if that's the case, we're going to have to stop for a break soon. My bladder can't take too much more of this bouncing," Shizune said from behind Hinata on their own toad, getting a nod from the girl in front of her in agreement.

* * *

Several miles north-west of Team Hokage and much later in the day, Jiraiya was beginning to regret his decision to accept the position of Rokudaime Hokage. Looking out the window at his teammate's mostly-carved face on the monument, the sannin sighed out a breath of frustration. "What have you gotten me into this time hime?"

A few moments later, a knock on the door preceded Umino Iruka's entrance to the office. "You asked to see me, Hokage-sama?"

Jiraiya nodded. "I'll get right to the point. Frankly, I need help. This place is impossible to run by myself without running myself into the ground in the process. It happened to Sarutobi-sensei and it was happening to Tsunade before she left. Naruto trusts you—kid wouldn't shut up about you, actually—so I'm pretty sure I can too."

"You would like for me to take Shizune's place?" Iruka asked, getting a nod in answer. "I would be honored to."

"Great," Jiraiya grinned. "The first thing I'm going to do is try to take care of this bullshit some of the council have gotten into their heads about Naruto."

"You're going to try to lift the banishment?"

The sannin nodded. "I don't think they're going to go for it. That's where you come in. I need a message sent to the Daimyo and I can't go myself, so that leaves you. Danzou, Koharu, and Homura are ignoring several of the laws and are playing too fast and loose with Tsunade's orders separating her group from Konoha and Fire Country. I know they sent Anko out with orders to kill Naruto and my contacts tell me that they sent another operative out to kill whoever survived."

"They did what?" Iruka asked, worry and anger written on his face.

"Apparently she decided she liked her odds better with Tsunade's bunch than trying to come back here where the council could potentially order her own execution. Not that I blame her, to do otherwise would have been stupid." Pulling out a scroll, Jiraiya handed it to Iruka. "Enclosed are copies of Tsunade's orders and a few other odds and ends. It's sealed to only open under the Fire Lord's personal seal. I need those orders verified and I need you to get back here as soon as possible."

Taking the scroll, Iruka nodded. "Anything else?" Seeing Jiraiya shake his head, Iruka left the office and made his way home to pack for a journey to the capitol.

Thinking over his next move, Jiraiya signaled the ANBU in the room to his side. "Tenzou, I need you to do some house cleaning for me. I want Danzou's people out of my ANBU. Have a team of ten loyal ANBU ready by the time Iruka returns. We're going to need a show of force when those orders come back with the Fire Lord's seal on them and I've got a good idea of where to start. Before doing that though, Gai's team recently returned from a mission, right?" Getting a nod in answer, Jiraiya said, "Have them meet me here as soon as they can. I have a mission for them."

Half an hour later, Team Gai—minus Gai himself, as the jonin was still out on a separate mission—entered the Hokage's office. "Hokage-sama," the three saluted.

Jiraiya waved them off. "Cut that crap out. I've got a mission for you three," he said, causing the trio of teens to stand up straighter. "I want the three of you to head over to Otafuku Gai and keep an eye out for Tsunade's team. Word has it they may be heading back up this way and we know they've been there once, so they may return. You are to watch the town for Tsunade's group and make contact with them if they show up. Don't do anything to piss them off. Just let Tsunade know that I'm working on reversing the situation. If you can manage it, arrange for one of your team to stay with her group to act as a liaison to Konoha. Any questions?"

"Hokage-sama," Neji spoke quickly, "I, along with every active duty ninja of the Hyuuga clan, have been issued orders by Hiashi-sama that should we encounter Hinata we are to capture her and bring her back to Konoha and the clan—by force if necessary."

Jiraiya nodded. "Yeah, that goes against my own orders so ignore them. If Hiashi has a problem with it, tell him to take it up to me. Also, you are not to speak of this mission to anyone until you return and then only to myself unless I allow you to speak freely about it. If you manage to convince them to allow one of your team to tag along and someone here asks where they are, tell them that your teammate is on a mission assigned directly by the Hokage and speak no further of it. You guys understand?" he asked, getting a round of nods. "Ok, get going."

After Team Gai left, Jiraiya picked up one of the pictures still on the Hokage's desk from Sarutobi's last term in office. It was of Sarutobi and Naruto, the old man leaning over the boy, who was wearing his hat. Both were grinning at the camera. "What the hell were you thinking, letting it get this bad old man?" Jiraiya grumbled, placing the picture back on the desk. Standing, he cursed when he bumped the edge of the desk and sent the picture to the floor where the glass shattered and the picture came halfway out from the frame. "Shit," Jiraiya cursed, picking the frame and picture back up. A bit of writing on the back of the photo caught his eye and he turned it over to examine it more closely. "Hello," he mumbled, reading over the short coded message before placing the photo in his pocket and leaving the office.

Jiraiya made his way across Konoha until he reached the Sarutobi residence. Finding no one home, he walked in through the large home's front door. Once more looking over the photo to make sure he was decoding the message on it correctly, Jiraiya navigated through the house to Sarutobi's personal library. Under the fourth book from the right, on the fourth shelf down, he found a small key. On the opposite side of the room, hidden behind more books and a hidden panel in the wall, the sannin found a safe. Dialing in the combination, he inserted the key and turned it. The safe opened smoothly and Jiraiya found inside a large folder underneath a small box. Surprised that the place hadn't been raided by Danzou the moment Sarutobi died, Jiraiya had to assume that even the council and Danzou were wary of upsetting the village with rumors of a group of ninja under the control of someone other than the Hokage ransacking the Sarutobi family residence.

Taking out the folder and box, Jiraiya sat at the small desk tucked under a window in a corner of the room. Opening the box, he found a small scroll with a key ring tied to it. Pulling off the key ring and setting it aside, the sannin unrolled the scroll and began to read.

_Jiraiya, this scroll contains my last orders to you as your Hokage, your sensei, and a request as your friend. As I am sure it will be you reading this since I have doubts that Tsunade will ever return to Konoha, especially not to take up the mantle of Hokage, I am entrusting Naruto to your care. As you are no doubt aware, Uzumaki Naruto is the son of Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina. Despite being away from Konoha at the time of his birth, I have a feeling you either already knew or suspected the truth of Naruto's parentage. After all, the boy is named for a character in one of your most popular books._

_Contained in this scroll are directions on how to find and enter the Namikaze residence. If I am to die before Naruto reaches the age of majority, you are to use your own discretion in telling him of his heritage. I would have preferred to leave off on telling that for a few years yet, until he becomes stronger at least. Once word spreads that the son of the Yellow Flash is alive, we will no longer be able to guarantee his safety outside the walls of Konoha. However, should the council attempt to carry out the plans they have held for Naruto these many years—either to exile him from Konoha or have him put to death—you are to collect everything of value from the Namikaze residence and flee Konoha with Naruto. I fear that once I am gone, should you not move quickly even as formidable as the protections around that particular home are, Danzou will find a way inside given enough time. He can not be allowed access to Minato's techniques._

_Train the boy as your apprentice, help him to understand Minato's techniques, and help him fulfill his dream of becoming the greatest Hokage this village has ever known. Do this for me, my student, and I will be able to rest easy._

The message ended there, and further to the side Jiraiya found the instructions for locating and entering the Namikaze residence. Reading it over twice just to be sure, Jiraiya shrugged before tucking the scroll into a pocket with the keys. Opening the folder, he smirked. Contained inside were transcripts of every council meeting to have taken place since Naruto's birth. Every attempt to bar the boy's progress or otherwise cut him off from the village by law was highlighted. Every last one of them had been shut down by Sarutobi before they could be made into law, but Sarutobi's own attempts to aid the boy had been vetoed by the council. Several instances where one clan or another—the Inuzuka and Hyuuga stood out the most—had tried to adopt the boy and had been denied by the council or the Hokage were also highlighted. Closing the folder, Jiraiya tucked that into his shirt as well and made his way out of Sarutobi's home.

Deciding to give the council one more chance before making his mind up about what to do about the situation, Jiraiya made his way back to the Hokage's office to ready his contingency plan in the event that they would not see reason. He found Yuuhi Kurenai waiting for him in one of the chairs outside the office. Seeing the serious look on her face as she stood to greet him, Jiraiya resisted the urge to leer at the woman. "Hokage-sama," Kurenai greeted with a short bow.

Jiraiya brushed past her and opened the door to the office, waving her inside. Closing the door, he waved for the ANBU in the corner to leave the room. Once he was sure they were alone, Jiraiya said, "Cut that crap out, would you? Makes me feel old every time I hear it." Unable to resist any longer, he did leer and added, "Well, except when coming from a beautiful flower such as yourself."

Kurenai rolled her eyes and took a seat across the desk from him. "I would like to request a mission," she said, getting right to business to avoid giving the older man further opportunities for his perversions.

"Let me guess," Jiraiya started, appearing to give the matter some thought, "you'd like to be permanently reassigned from your teaching duties to be poster-girl for Konoha?"

"No, Hokage-sama," Kurenai deadpanned, aware that he was baiting her but not in the mood to play games. "I would like to request that Team 8 be allowed to search for Tsunade-sama's group."

"I've already got Gai's team out trying to make contact with them. Besides, what would you do if you found them?" Jiraiya asked. Receiving no immediate response, he asked, "Try to retrieve the Hyuuga girl?" That got a nod. "Look, I know you're worried about your student but she's a tough kid, and she's with some pretty powerful friends. Besides, what would you do when you got her back—send her back the Hyuuga? You and I both know exactly what Hiashi has in mind in case that ever happens. He's already got half the clan out looking for her. He wants her back and he wants her branded with that seal. He needs to send a message to the rest of the clan that they can't just turn their backs on the Hyuuga."

"I know that," Kurenai grumbled. "What else am I supposed to do? In the short time since Tsunade-sama left, this place has begun falling apart. I loved this place once. I grew up here and Konoha has been home to me for as long as I can remember."

Jiraiya held up a hand, urging her to be silent for a moment. Pulling out ink, a brush, and a scroll he quickly scribed a seal onto the scroll and activated it, sending smaller copies of the seal spreading out across the room. "What's keeping you here?"

"I am a loyal shinobi of Konoha—" Kurenai started, only to be cut off as Jiraiya raised his hand for silence.

"Kurenai, I'm not questioning your loyalties." Seeing her relax some, he continued. "I want an honest answer: what is keeping you in Konoha?"

Kurenai gave the question honest consideration. She had no family left alive and the closest thing she had to a daughter or sibling was currently outside of the village and just a step above being a missing-nin. Of the friends she had, one had left Konoha and joined Tsunade's group, she hadn't spoken to another in nearly a year, and the last would probably want to stay with her family. She had no boyfriend, husband, or even a lover at the moment—she and Asuma were on another 'off again' phase of what barely even qualified as a relationship. The other two original members of Team 8 were nearing a point when she would be unable to teach them anything more without having them specialize in genjutsu, and from what she knew of the girl she didn't particularly like the newest member of Team 8 but had decided to be fair and actually try to teach the girl.

"I don't know," Kurenai answered slowly.

"What do you think about leaving some time in the future?"

Kurenai raised an eyebrow. "What are you suggesting?"

Jiraiya shrugged. "I'm going to give the council one more chance. If they agree to rescind the order banishing Naruto, then we'll see what happens from there. As you know, that's the only way Tsunade would ever come back. If they don't... well, I'm pretty sure there's room for one more Hokage in Tsunade's group. And I don't plan to half-ass any attempt at leaving this place like she did. If I go, I'm going to make sure this place falls down behind me."

"Would there be room for one more on this exodus?" Kurenai asked quietly.

Grinning, Jiraiya nodded. "Know someone who might want to tag along with a handsome young man while he makes his dashing escape from the jaws of oppression and tyranny?"

"Find me a handsome young man and I may know someone willing to follow," Kurenai laughed.

"Can you think of anyone else who might want to join our own merry little band of soon-to-be outcasts?"

"Perhaps," Kurenai answered thoughtfully. "How soon would you need an answer?"

"A couple of weeks, a month tops. I need time to prepare first and Tsunade left some unfinished business behind that I'd like to follow through on," Jiraiya answered.

"How many more people would you like to have?"

"As many as possible," Jiraiya answered. "Unfortunately, that isn't going to happen. It can't happen. We need to limit this to as few people as we can manage. I don't want the council getting wind of this until we're halfway to where ever we're going. If you're coming, I could use some help gathering stuff to take with us. We don't actually need to take anything now, but I'd like to have an idea of what we'll be carrying with us."

Kurenai nodded, standing. "I'll hold off on approaching anyone until you know for sure what's going to happen."

'That's fine. I'll clear your mission schedule until then. Maybe reassign you to strictly teaching duty for a while," Jiraiya said as she left his office. Placing his hand on the scroll he'd used to seal the room he applied chakra to it again, this time destroying the seals on the walls and on the scroll itself. A moment later, after Kurenai had left his office, a chuunin pushed a large cart covered in several boxes into the office. "What's all that?"

"The backlog of paperwork, Hokage-sama," the chuunin answered and quickly left the room so as to keep from being drafted into helping fill it out.

Taking one look at the stack of papers, Jiraiya laughed. "There is no way in hell I'm doing all of that."

When she stepped out of the tower/administration building, Kurenai saw that the sun was setting and it would soon be time for her to go to bed if she wanted to be up early to train with her team tomorrow. Deciding against putting in the effort to cook that night, she made her way into the business district of Konoha. The scent of ramen caught her nose and she followed it to a small stand not too far away. She brushed aside the curtains and took a seat on a stool just in time to catch the tail end of a conversation.

"Look, all I'm saying is that we should think about moving. I know you don't want to but this place just isn't the same without Naruto around," a brown-haired girl wearing an apron was telling an older man, who stood at the stove over several pots of ramen, getting them ready for the evening rush. She recognized the two immediately as Ichiraku Teuchi and Ayame. Noticing her other customer, Ayame blushed and hurried over. "Sorry about that. What can I get for you?"

"What would you suggest?" Kurenai asked, looking over the menu.

Beside her, a girl with long blond hair tied back into a pair of pony-tails answered. "Everything is good, but you should try either the miso or the beef today."

Kurenai nodded. "Miso it is then," she told Ayame before studying the girl a few stools down more closely. Something about the girl seemed familiar, just a little... off from what she felt she should be seeing. In addition, the girl moved like a ninja but wore no hitai-ate. She couldn't detect a henge or genjutsu being used either, or even any trace of chakra being used. As she finished what appeared to be her second bowl, something on the counter caught Kurenai's eye. "Where did you get that?" she asked, pointing towards a black coffee cup with a green leaf symbol on it.

"Like it? I picked it up earlier today," the girl answered, smiling.

Kurenai's eyes narrowed. "I'm sure you did. Except I know that cup. Anko tried to kill me when I put that chip in it," she said, pointing to the small piece broken off from around the lip of the cup.

The girl's grin widened, her eyes closing. "I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about."

Kurenai blinked, studying the girl's face more closely before blinking again. "_Uzumaki?_" she whispered, realizing what was off about the figure. She was expecting to see a trio of whisker marks on either cheek and they weren't present.

"Oh shit," the girl gasped, eyes going wide as she tried to bolt.

Kurenai's arm shot out and grabbed the other girl's forearm, pulling her back into her seat. "That is you, isn't it?"

"Careful!" the girl warned, jerking her hand away. "I'm _delicate_."

"Kage bunshin," Kurenai murmured, getting a nod in response.

"Anko is going to kill me," the girl—now identified as Naruto in his sexy no jutsu form—groaned. "She _told_ me not to screw around. She told me not to get caught. And what did I do? I got caught. Shit."

Kurenai smiled, accepting her bowl from Ayame, who leaned against the counter between the two. "I'm surprised you didn't notice sooner, being a ninja and all," the girl smiled. "It was kind of obvious, the way he... she eats."

"Hey! What's wrong with the way I eat?"

"You eat like a pig," both women answered, causing the blond to nearly fall out of her seat.

"If you're here, where are the others? Where is Hinata?" Kurenai asked quickly, careful to keep her voice down.

Naruto shrugged. "Why should I tell you that? For all I know, you could be planning to attack us again."

"What do you mean?" Ayame asked in confusion, mirrored by Kurenai.

"You mean you don't know?" the blond asked. "About Anko?"

Kurenai's eyes narrowed. "We were told she left on a mission and went missing-nin to join you."

Naruto shook his/her head. "Nunuh. Council sent her to kill me. She didn't, obviously."

"Bastards," Ayame growled.

"What about—" Kurenai asked, only to be cut off.

"Hinata-chan is fine. They just set camp for the night a couple of hours ago. It's how I got here so fast. I was only about halfway here when they made camp. Anko got bored and started trying to teach me shunshin. Once I figured out the technique, I used that to get here."

"Shunshin should have taken you more than a couple of hours to learn," Kurenai pointed out in disbelief.

Another shake of her head met Kurenai's skepticism. "Only took me a couple of hours. It's kind of like kawarimi, except instead of using your chakra to switch yourself with something else and pull you across the space between you just sort of skip the first part."

"That's not how shunshin works," Kurenai pointed out. "It's a speed-enhancing technique used to enhance your natural speed. There is a bastardized version like the one you're talking about, but it's much harder to learn and perform. Most jonin only use it in emergencies if they know it since it requires so much chakra."

Naruto shrugged. "It's what Anko taught me how to do. It's pretty easy too. Well, I need to go. Anko will kill me if I don't get this thing to her in one piece soon," the blond yawned, putting down some money for the meal. Kurenai watched as the blond vanished. A moment later, the girl reappeared and rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. "Oops. Forgot this," she mumbled, grabbing the cup and taking off again.

"So," Kurenai said quietly once she'd gotten over the blond's exits. "What were you saying about moving?" And though she had been distracted by the boy's reappearance in the village and his flashy exits, a question lingered in the back of her mind. She knew, absolutely knew he was using henge the entire time. The question was, why couldn't she detect the chakra use to hold up the technique?

Henge was a simple illusion, but even so simple a technique required a constant—if small—amount of chakra to maintain. And henge as anything but an illusion wouldn't make any sense—the technique would be too complicated, require too much research and precise control to pull off, not to mention the chakra demands required for something so complex. Sure, the Akimichi had their family techniques to alter body mass but—for the most part—they were altering their bodies proportionally to the desired expansion. That, and it took _years _to develop such techniques, which is why they tended to stay within the clans that created them and were not released into the general ninja population. And then there were the rumors that someone on Team 7 had transformed into a fuuma shuriken during Team 7's initial encounter with Momochi Zabuza during their mission to wave... Shaking her head, Kurenai put those thoughts aside for the moment. The answers wouldn't come until she'd had a chance to ask the boy herself anyway.

And elsewhere, between Konoha and Otafuku Gai, Team Gai called a halt to their run. "Set up camp or keep going?" Neji asked.

"We should show Jiraiya-sama that our flames of youth burn brightly by running all the way to Otafuku Gai!" Lee shouted, getting a set of matching glares from Tenten and Neji.

"Camp," Tenten answered simply. She was tired, dirty, and hadn't had a chance to relax good from their last mission before being put on this one. Well, at least they were going to track down the kunoichi she'd viewed as an inspiration to all kunoichi since joining the academy.

Neji nodded in agreement before activating his Byakugan and searching the area they were in to make sure it would be secure for the night. "I will take first watch. Lee, second. Tenten, third."

Nodding her agreement, Tenten unsealed her sleeping bag and passed out on top of it almost immediately, not even bothering to eat. Lee shook his head at his teammates' unyouthful actions before pulling out his own bedroll and settling down for sleep. It was some time later when Neji activated his Byakugan again for one last sweep before waking Lee when a speck of light caught his eye. Narrowing his eyes, he focused his vision further out. His eyes widened when he realized that it was not a light, but a chakra signature rapidly approaching their position. Realizing he wouldn't have time to wake his teammates, Neji pulled out a kunai and prepared for battle. A moment later, someone passed by overhead at an obscene speed Neji had only ever seen from Lee and their sensei, leaving a slowly fading trail of chakra in their wake. He blinked when he realized he recognized the figure rapidly leaving his field of vision.

"Lee, Tenten, get up!" Neji called out, already throwing on his pack.

"What is it? Where's the fire?" Tenten asked blearily, quickly resealing her bag as she noticed Neji making preparations to break camp.

"Uzumaki just ran by. We need to go now, before he gets too far away. The trail's already fading."

"What trail?" Lee asked, confused but going along with his teammates as they jumped into the trees following Neji's lead.

Popping a soldier pill, Neji focused on following the path. It seemed to be following a straight line directly towards Otafuku Gai. "He's using some kind of speed technique I've never seen before and it's leaving a chakra trail. If we follow—"

"We might catch up to Tsunade-sama and the others," Tenten nodded, waking up quickly. "Are you going to be ok to run the rest of the way?"

"I'll be fine for now. We can rest when we get there."

"Yosh! Let us—"

"SHUT UP Lee!" Tenten growled, throwing a kunai blunt-end first at her green-spandex clad teammate, silencing him. "It's too early in the morning for that."

"Sorry," Lee whimpered. "I'll be good," the boy promised, inwardly apologizing to Gai-sensei for letting the kunoichi on their team outshine his own flames of youth, even if she only did so on a few days out of every month.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Not quite where I want this story to be yet, but rushing it will ruin the whole thing. Also, thanks to Perfect Lionheart for giving this story his official stamp of approval. If you haven't read his stuff, go do so now. I can hold off on putting out the next chapter until you get finished with that if you like.


	8. A Legend is Born

**The Missing Hokage**

**08: A Legend is Born**

* * *

Team Gai had been running for nearly five hours straight when Tenten nearly missed her landing from the latest in a long line of tree-jumps. "We need to stop!" she called, noticing that even Lee seemed to be flagging.

"Uzumaki hasn't stopped," Neji pointed out, despite agreeing with her.

"Yeah, well Uzumaki's a bigger damn stamina freak than Lee apparently! We'll never catch him," Tenten growled, feeling her legs beginning to quiver. She would soon be forced to either sit down or fall down.

"Perhaps we should take a short break and pick up again soon," Lee suggested. "We know where Naruto-san is going and even if you lose the trail now, you can find him in Otafuku Gai with your Byakugan."

Neji frowned in annoyance and reluctantly slowed to a halt, allowing Tenten and Lee to drop onto the forest floor below. He hated to admit it, but they were right. And he really didn't want to admit that they had been slowly losing the trail he had been following anyway. The more time passed, the more distance Uzumaki put between them, and the fainter his chakra trail grew. "We'll rest for an hour and pick up again after that."

Nodding in agreement, Tenten downed half her canteen full of water in a single draw. Coming up panting for air, she resisted the urge to dump the rest either on her head or her now-sore legs. "What the hell is he?" she grumbled in annoyance, wondering just what sort of person it took to be able to run the night out without stopping. And whatever technique the blond was using spent enough chakra that it left a trail Neji could follow. Hell, if she hadn't passed it off as her eyes playing tricks on her, she would have sworn the chakra had still been visible when she'd first woken up. The mystery surrounding the Uzumaki, along with the second part of their mission, gave her an interesting dilemma to think on.

If they did make contact with Tsunade's group and if the sannin would allow one of their team to liaise between them and Konoha, then who would be best suited for the job? Neji was right out—while he'd improved in the short time since the chuunin exams, he was still a bit of an ass. There was also Neji's cousin to consider and Tenten doubted Hinata would ever agree to letting her cousin interact with their group for any prolonged period of time. And if memory served, it was Uzumaki who had given the stoic Hyuuga the much-needed kick in the ass that had started his slow change down the road to being a better person. Lee, while good-natured and friendly with nearly everyone he met, could be a bit of a handful. The green-clad genin's...exuberance could get to be a little hard to deal with at times. And while Tenten was sure he and Naruto would get along just fine, she doubted the others of that group would be able to keep from killing Lee for more than a week.

That left herself as the only person on their team even approaching a viable candidate for the job. Being just one of the many orphans of the last great war, she had no family in Konoha to worry about her staying out on an extended mission. She didn't know Hinata well, but they had gotten along well enough the few times they had met—actually, Hinata was about the only main-branch Hyuuga she could stand being around. She'd seen Uzumaki around enough to know what to expect from the blond—if she were honest with herself, the boy would be far easier to deal with than Lee or their sensei. And as for Tsunade and Shizune... well, she had wanted to meet the medic since she first joined the academy. Her mind made up, she decided to let the team know of their decision once they reached their destination.

"We're going," Neji called, screwing the cap onto his canteen and standing.

Blowing a few loose strands of hair out from in front of her eyes in irritation, Tenten nodded and stood. Neji could really be an ass sometimes. She respected him as a ninja and valued him as a teammate, but it would be good to get away from him and the other two oddballs on their team for a while. "We're finding a place to shower when we get there."

* * *

Some time after lunch, the group called a halt to their cross-country toad travel and Naruto dismissed the three toads he'd summoned. Just over the hill they'd stopped behind was Otafuku Gai. The group took a moment to get used to walking on solid ground again and started out for town, a few of them still on wobbly legs. "So what are we doing first?" Naruto asked as they made their way towards the town's gates.

"We should find a place to stay," Isaribi suggested, getting nods from the group.

Thinking for a moment, Anko turned towards Shizune and asked, "How much did you two swipe from Konoha's treasury before you left?"

"A lot," Shizune answered vaguely. "Why?"

Anko shrugged. "Well, this makes the second time you've passed through here right?" she asked, getting a round of nods from the group. "And if we plan to stay here for an extended period of time this time, we'll need something more secure than a hotel. We'll also need a place to get some training in without scaring the townsfolk," she said, shooting a glance at Naruto who stuck his tongue out in reply. "If you've got the money for it, why don't we just make Otafuku Gai our base of operations for Fire Country and buy a place to stay?"

"That sounds like a good idea," Shizune agreed. "Should we put it to a vote or what?"

"You guys really thought this through pretty well huh?" Anko rolled her eyes. "I say we vote on all major decisions from now on, majority rules. If we let the two of you make all of our decisions, Tsunade'll have us up to our eyeballs in debt before the week is out."

Tsunade growled when Anko's statement received nods all around. "Fine. All in favor of buying a place here?" she asked. Seeing that everyone raised their hands, Tsunade turned towards Shizune.

"Oh no you don't!" Shizune shook her head. "You're all helping."

Naruto shrugged. "I don't mind helping out."

"Where do we go to buy a house?" Hinata asked.

"We find a realator," Shizune answered, leading them towards the business district.

Seeing that they had some time to kill, Anko brought up another matter that had been bothering her for some time. "So, what's our plan anyway, aside from getting some training in and generally trying to piss off Konoha as hard as we can?"

"I don't know," Shizune answered, her face coloring slightly in embarrassment. "Tsunade-sama?"

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "I uh... didn't think that far ahead."

"For a sannin, you're not very bright are you?" Naruto teased and was forced to dodge the woman's fist as she tried to bash his head in.

Anko snickered. "Damn, I knew you guys had your heads up your asses but this is ridiculous. I figured you'd at least have some sort of an idea of what you wanted to do once you got over the initial rush of leaving."

"Fine, if you're so smart, what did you have in mind?" Tsunade grumbled in defeat. She hated to admit it, but Anko was right. She'd gone off half-cocked on this little exodus and it would eventually come back to bite them in the ass unless they got their heads together and came up with a plan. Her best idea aside from leaving had been to form a band of free ninja, able to operate within the borders of any country. And while that was a great idea, it wouldn't work for very long.

Anko shrugged. "I didn't say I had a plan, I just said we need one. We can put off deciding on one for a while, but we need to do something about it soon."

Before the group could discuss the matter further, Naruto approached the group from up the street, grinning ear to ear. Trading looks between the blond beside them and the blond up the street—who was obviously Naruto, and so must be a shadow clone—the girls shared a confused look. Well, all of them save for Anko. "Here," the boy said, handing her the mug she'd asked for. "I didn't put the chip in it!" he denied quickly.

"I know, Kurenai did that," Anko grinned. "So, you ran all the way to Konoha?"

The clone nodded. "Most of the way. Used shunshin to get there the rest of the way and then come here. Kurenai-san said something about my shunshin not being right. What'd she mean?"

Anko shrugged innocently while the other kunoichi were once again left in awe of their male teammate. "How long were you able to keep shunshin up? And I thought I told you not to get caught!" she growled, swatting the clone and turning to the original when it exploded into smoke.

"I couldn't help it," Naruto continued from where the clone had left off once he'd sorted through the recent memories. "I had to stop and get something to eat and she noticed _your_ cup! So if anything, it's your fault."

"She say anything?"

Naruto shook his head. "Just asked about Hinata-chan a lot. Oh! And she said that the council said you went missing-nin but didn't say anything about the mission to kill me."

"That sounds just like those assholes," Tsunade said, finally snapping out of her Naruto-induced stupor.

"So Naruto-kun, how long was your kage bunshin traveling to Konoha?" Shizune finally asked.

The boy shrugged. "Couple of days. Would have got there faster if I—he hadn't had to sleep."

Anko smirked when the two medics turned their eyes on her. "What?"

"Clones usually disperse with distance or if the caster sleeps. I've never heard of a clone sleeping," Tsunade said.

"I know," Anko nodded.

Shizune sighed. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

Anko nodded again. "Uhhuh. We've got to find the kid's limits somehow. I mean sure, he's officially ranked as a chuunin, but I want to know how he really stacks up. I know from working with him that his taijutsu skills are barely that of a genin—and one fresh out of the academy at that. And we all know he's got horrible chakra control."

"You try controlling it when you've got more than everyone else," the boy grumbled. "All of the exercises are made for people with small chakra reserves trying to build them up, not huge reserves they need to get some control over."

"You're right," Anko agreed. "We need to find something for you to do that would require the use of a lot of chakra at a time. And speaking of reserves, what would you say his are?" Anko asked, directing the question to Tsunade.

Tsunade shrugged. "Jonin-level easily."

Anko snorted. "Come on, be serious. How many jonin do you know with reserves that large? Hell, out of the sannin, how do you stack up compared to him?"

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "You're right. But I have the least chakra of the three of us, so Jiraiya or Orochimaru could have more for all I know."

"So, sannin level at least," Shizune surmised.

"Ano... aren't two of the three sannin Kages?" Hinata asked, causing the other kunoichi to blink in realization.

"Speaking of my old sensei," Anko said, changing the topic before the boy's head swelled, "what are we going to do about him? You know that once he gets wind of this he's not going to leave us alone for long."

"I say we kill him," Naruto answered, drawing surprised looks from those who knew him well. "He killed the old man and he tried to kill Baachan. The bastard needs to die."

"Yes, but he's a sannin," Hinata pointed out. "Even with all of your power Naruto-kun, he still has years of experience that we do not."

"We don't have to do it right now," the blond said, nodding his agreement to her words. "But it needs to be soon."

"The Uchiha?" Anko asked, getting a nod. "Well, you're right on that at least. If he gets the Sharingan, we're pretty much fucked. Not just us, but everyone."

When they turned onto the more populated streets of the business district of Otafuku Gai, it was by unspoken agreement that they decided to save their conversation until after they had more privacy. With some help from one of the town's locals it wasn't long before they had found a realator's office and, once they explained their needs to the agent, they were again walking towards the outskirts of town. Nearly a kilometer to the northeast of the town, they followed a path up to a medium-sized traditional home. "This is the largest property and home we have available at the moment," the realator explained. "It once belonged to a large family who have since left Otafuku Gai."

After spending some time looking the place over, the group took a quick vote and Shizune turned to the realator. "We'll take it."

The woman nodded, leading them back towards the town. "Which bank will you be financing your purchase through?"

"Is it all right if we pay in cash?" Shizune asked.

Attempting to keep the sarcasm from her voice, the realator said, "This is quite a large purchase. You may have underestimated the current market value of such an estate."

Narrowing her eyes in annoyance, Shizune turned towards the rest of the group. "Give me twenty minutes and meet me back at her office," she said. Getting a round of nods, she took off through the trees for town.

"Well, we've got some time to kill until then. What do you want to do?" Naruto asked the others as the realator made her way back towards her office, a smug look on her face.

"We need to get Anko a new hitai-ate," Tsunade reminded the group.

"Didn't you say something about that dog wanting that guy to summon him?" Anko asked, getting a nod from Tsunade.

The matter decided, the group made their way to a familiar ninja outfitting store in the shopping district. The bell over the door chimed, announcing their presence as Tsunade pushed the door open. Looking up from his magazine, Dane's eyebrow raised when he spotted Anko. "Do I even want to know?"

Anko shook her head while Tsunade grabbed one of the blank hitai-ate and handed it to Dane. "We need another of these. And your dog asked us to have you summon him when we got here."

Taking the blank hitai-ate, Dane nodded. "I can have it ready in an hour or so," he said, pocketing it and cutting his thumb on a kunai before sealing and summoning a familiar blueish-gray and black dog. "What the hell is this about?" he directed towards the dog.

Coe ignored the question, turning his head around to dig a scroll out from a backpack that had been fixed to his back since the group had last seen him. "They want you to sign," he said after tossing the scroll towards Naruto.

"Is this..." Naruto asked, unrolling the scroll and grinning. "Sweet, a dog summoning contract."

Anko shot a curious look at the contract. "Is that Kakashi's contract?" she asked, getting a head shake from Coe.

"I know of the Copy-nin but he has not signed our contract."

"But he's summoned dogs before! I've seen it," Naruto argued.

Poking her fingers together and getting her hands slapped by Anko for her trouble, Hinata said, "Perhaps Kakashi-san has a personal contract with a different group of dogs."

Coe nodded. "Sounds about right. There are a few types of summoning contracts. The main contract is the large contract with the entire species, or at least those of us able to be summoned. There are family or clan contracts that are similar to the main contract, that are only able to be signed by those within a clan or family. There are also personal contracts with a species or the boss of that group. I'm pretty sure Hatake's contract is not with all dogs, but rather his own group—that's another type of summoning contract, a pact between a smaller group willing to be summoned by those few that hold their contract."

Signing the contract, Naruto asked, "So which kind is this?"

"A personal contract between yourself and those of your choosing and most of our kind," Coe answered, taking the contract back from the boy when he offered it and placing it back in his backpack.

"I can let anybody sign it that I want to?" he asked, getting a nod in answer. "And you're the one holding it?"

"For now, until you decide to have someone else carry it," Coe answered.

Nodding, the boy said, "I'll probably summon you later to have everyone else sign it." The dog nodded in agreement and disappeared in a cloud of smoke and the boy turned his attention to the kunoichi looking at him. "What?"

"What, are you collecting those things?" Anko asked, grinning. "Not that I'm complaining, so long as I get to sign too."

"That isn't a bad idea," Tsunade murmured. "We should probably sign any summoning contracts we can get our hands on in the future."

"We should go see if Shizune-senpai is finished," Hinata pointed out after noting the time.

"How much do I owe you?" Tsunade asked, turning to Dane.

The retired shinobi shrugged. "Tell you what... I'll give you a discount if you do your business here from now on."

"That sounds reasonable," Tsunade agreed.

"Come back in about an hour, you can pay for it then."

The group left the store and made their way back to the realator's office, where they found Shizune waiting patiently, an odd smile on her face. "What's with that look?" Anko asked.

Shizune shook her head as she lead the group inside. Looking up from her desk, the realator from before smiled. "Have you decided on a method of payment?"

"The bank has taken care of it," Shizune answered. "Oh, and you're fired."

"What?"

"You. Are. Fired," Shizune repeated slowly for the woman. "I bought your company while I was at the bank."

Tsunade sighed. "I thought we were going to vote on all major decisions."

"Sorry, she just rubbed me the wrong way," Shizune apologized, strolling behind the flabbergasted woman's desk and taking the keys she recognized as those belonging to their new residence. "You have ten minutes to clear out your things before security escorts you from the premises."

"But... but... we're a multi-million ryo company operating across most of the Elemental Nations. You can't just waltz in and—"

"I did," Shizune interrupted. "The paperwork should go through by the end of the week." Twirling the keys around her finger, Shizune lead the group back out from what was now _their_ office. "I made a pretty large deposit while I was at the bank. Well, not very large at all compared to the rest of our funds, but you should have seen the looks on their faces... So, supplies?"

The group collectively nodded. "I didn't know you had it in you," Anko grinned.

"Shizune," Tsunade said, drawing her first apprentice's attention. "Since you didn't let us vote, I'm going gambling tonight."

Shizune rolled her eyes. "Fine. Do you think you can manage not to bankrupt us on a million ryo allowance?"

Tsunade nearly drooled. "Maybe," she answered evasively.

"Naruto, go with her tonight," Shizune sighed.

Naruto shot the older kunoichi a panic-stricken look. "Why can't you do it?!"

"Because it's time for you to start learning about the rest of your duties as Tsunade-sama's apprentice. One of them is baby-sitting her when she gets like this," Shizune answered tiredly.

"I'm not a child," Tsunade sulked, glaring at her oldest apprentice.

Turning hopeful eyes on Shizune, Anko asked, "Since you're giving out allowances..."

Shizune nodded. "Fine, you can go too if you want. Just try not to blow it all at once."

"You up for a few rounds tonight?" Anko asked Tsunade, getting a nod and a grin in response.

Rubbing at her forehead in an effort to stave off her impending headache, Shizune turned to Naruto and Hinata. "That's another of your duties—dragging Tsunade-sama home when she has a little too much to drink and keeping her from killing anyone fool enough to grope her when she gets like that."

"Does this happen often?" Hinata asked.

Shizune nodded. "Not since she became Hokage, but yes, it used to happen all of the time. I've been trying to keep her away from sake and gambling parlors since we left, but it was bound to happen eventually."

The group spent the rest of the afternoon gathering supplies to stock their house with and returned shortly after. When they got back, Naruto created another horde of clones and set them to cleaning the place up while the group spent the last few daylight hours doing some light practicing. Once night rolled around, Anko and Tsunade each took one of Naruto's arms and dragged him—protesting the entire way—off in the direction of town while Shizune, Hinata, and Isaribi decided to stay behind and take a better inventory of their things since they'd finally had a chance to settle down away from prying eyes.

As the trio pushed their way inside a gambling parlor—or was dragged in Naruto's case—the blond wrinkled his nose. "Blech, it reeks in here."

Anko shrugged. "Can't be helped, kid."

Tsunade made her way over to a counter and came back a moment later with a pair of small boxes loaded with multi-colored round wooden chips, one of which she handed to Anko, who asked, "You want to play first, or get good and hammered before we start losing money?"

Tsunade grinned, "You have much to learn yet," she said, leading the trio over towards the bar and ordering a large jug of warmed sake and a pair of glasses. "We can do both at the same time."

Above the main floor, one-way mirrors lined every wall of the second floor. Upstairs, several men with binoculars watched the action on the floor for any signs of cheating. One's eyes swept over the small group and he smirked, reaching into his pocket for a small radio. "All dealers be aware, the Legendary Sucker is back."

The group made their way to a card table where Anko and Tsunade were dealt in by the oddly-smiling dealer. Growing bored after only a minute of this, Naruto let them know it. "I'm bored."

Tsunade waved the boy off while Anko waved towards the room behind them. "Go find something to do. Look around and if you see some guy throwing around lots of money come let us know."

Huffing out a breath in irritation, Naruto turned away from the group and waded into the sea of people, money, and machines. Nearing the end of the crowd, he bumped into a man wearing a purple and blue flower-patterned shirt carrying a small bucket of coins, several of which fell off the top and onto the floor. Bending down to pick them up, Naruto called out to the man disappearing into the crowd. "Hey, mister! You dropped these!"

"Keep 'em kid," the guy waved the boy off, heading towards the bar.

Shrugging, Naruto looked around and spotted a row of mechanical slot machines. Deciding that it wouldn't hurt anything, he found an unoccupied one and fed a coin in. Pulling the handle, he yawned and waited for the machine to spin down. He had nearly given up on it when the machine lit up, flashing and wailing as it spit out coins. The blond quickly grabbed a nearby bucket and emptied the coins into it. Spotting a machine nearby that had just been vacated, the boy decided to try his luck again and fed it a coin. Within five minutes, the boy had several buckets filled with coins and a clone holding each. He was also beginning to grow suspicious. _'Someone has to be playing a trick on me or a prank or something,'_ the boy mused.

Deciding to leave the slot machines alone for now and growing tired of having to use clones to carry his winnings, the boy went to one of the change counters and placed his buckets on top of one. "Could you change that out for me?" he asked.

The woman at the counter raised an eyebrow but nodded and fed the money into a machine that would automatically count and sort the various coins. The machine came up with a number totaling nearly a thousand ryo and the cashier counted out the correct bills quickly before handing them to the boy. "Here you go, hun," she smiled.

Thanking the woman, Naruto wandered back onto the main floor. Spotting something that looked interesting, he made his way over to a table where some people were placing bets. He studied the game for a few rounds before he figured he had the basics of it down. The people would all place bets on a number on either a red or black square and then the guy running the game would spin something that looked like a wheel before dropping a small ball onto the wheel and where ever the ball landed indicated who had won. Shrugging, he placed down all of his winnings on the square for Red-Ten.

"That's a lot of money," a man beside the boy pointed out. "Are you sure you want to do that son?"

Naruto shrugged, looking up to find the guy he had bumped into earlier. "It's not like it's mine anyway," he answered, and by that time the little ball was already bouncing along the inside of the wheel.

"And we have a winner!" the man running the game called. "RED TEN!"

Naruto blinked, looking back at the very large sum of money that had been added to his own stack. "Crap. I thought I'd lose that one." Shrugging, the boy took his winnings and left the table, once more using kage bunshin to carry a mixed stack of bills and coins. He returned to the change counter and changed out his winnings for larger bills, the sum now totaling in the thousands. Taking his winnings, he looked around and spotted another game. Making his way across the room, he found a game where people were throwing dice around and putting money on what they would land on. Less than five minutes later, he was once again at the change counter.

"This is getting ridiculous," the blond growled. Bringing his hands together, he created a group of clones and grinned. "Go get rid of this stuff," he said, making his way over towards the bar and seeing if they had anything to drink besides alcohol. Looking over the menu, he nearly cheered when he found that they served ramen. He ordered a large bowl of beef ramen and a glass of water. "How much do I owe you?" he asked the man behind the counter.

"Food and drink are on the house, sir," the bartender/waiter answered.

"Freaking sweet! I want a bowl of every kind of ramen you have, but don't bring out the next until I'm done," he ordered.

The waiter/bartender raised an eyebrow. "We serve over twenty varieties of ramen alone," he said slowly, making sure the boy was sure of his order.

Naruto nodded. "I can eat a lot of the stuff, trust me. And if it's free, that just makes it better."

An hour and over twenty bowls of ramen later, Naruto groaned and patted his full stomach. "Oh man, that hit the spot."

"That's... physically impossible," the waiter mumbled in awe.

Naruto shrugged. "Old Man Teuchi and Ayame-neechan used to say the same thing all the time," the boy grinned. Naruto turned around when he felt a tap on his shoulder. "What is it?" he asked of one of the clones that had returned.

"Boss, we may have a problem," the clone said, waving towards where several clones were carrying far more money than they had started out with.

"Shit," the boy sighed. "I've got to find a way to lose this crap. Come on, we haven't tried that game Anko and Baachan were on."

The boy found the two kunoichi sitting at their table wearing identical looks of annoyance, two very small stacks of chips between them along with a couple of empty sake bottles. Several other people were still at the table, but directly across from them a man wearing a pair of sun glasses and smoking a cigar smirked, a very large stack of chips and bills in front of him—on his shirt was a picture of a red fox holding a hand of cards and above it, the word BAD in large bold print. "I give up," one of the people at the table announced before the next round began, leaving his seat. Naruto recognized it as the same guy he'd bumped into earlier.

The blond waved at the dealer. "I don't have any of those chips. Can I just use cash?" he asked.

Turning to regard the blond and noting several duplicates of the boy behind him, each carrying a very large stack of bills, the dealer swallowed hard and nodded. "Certainly, sir."

"Great," Naruto smiled, sitting down. "I'll bet it all."

"All, sir? Are you certain?" the dealer asked. Across the table, the obvious card-shark smirked wider.

Naruto nodded and the dealer began dealing out the cards. Looking up from their pitiful hands, Tsunade and Anko noticed the blond sitting at their table for the first time—along with the stack of bills he had brought with him. Turning to face each other, they shared an identical set of smirks before placing their cards face-down on the table. "We fold," they announced simultaneously.

Five minutes later, the blond had a new pair of sun glasses and the card-shark had headed to the bar to ease the pain of his humbling defeat. Sighing in annoyance, Naruto folded up the glasses and hung them from his shirt, having long since unzipped both his chuunin vest and jacket. "Are you two ready to go home yet?" he asked, getting drunken giggling and nods in answer. "You're both drunk, aren't you?" More giggling and nods were his answer as Anko and Tsunade thumbed through a few of the bills that Naruto and his clones were carrying.

Naruto and his clones lead the two women towards the exit, pausing at one of the counters long enough to ask, "Can you guys deposit this stuff into our account? I don't know which bank it is and I don't trust these two with my cash."

The cashier nodded as the clones began piling bills onto her desk. "Certainly, sir. May I have your name and may I ask how we should try to identify the bank that holds your account?"

"Uzumaki Naruto," the boy answered, then thumbed his hitai-ate. "A lady wearing one of these opened it earlier today."

"Thank you, sir. The money shall be in your account before noon tomorrow," the woman said, giving the trio a quick bow.

"Thanks," Naruto smiled. "Come on, let's go," he said, slinging Anko's arm over his shoulder and dragging her through the door while a clone did the same with Tsunade.

Upstairs, the crew that were supposed to monitor the gambling below all shared similar stunned looks. The boy had never lost a game. Not a single one. Even the ones that were rigged! They couldn't figure out how he had done it as none of them had seen him cheating and the only ninja technique he had used was some cort of duplication technique, but they were all making notes to keep an eye on the boy in the future. "Gentlemen," one of the most senior of them spoke up. "It seems we have just witnessed the birth of another legend." His statement got nods of agreement all around. "He needs a name..."

Outside, the pair of Narutos and the two kunoichi were nearly out of town when the blond boys paused. A moment later, a trio of ninja dropped down from a roof-top. "Uzumaki," Neji greeted coldly.

"We've been looking for you guys," Tenten smiled.

"How'd you find me?"

"YOSH! Naruto-kun, the flames of your youth burn brightly! You could not hide from my youthful teammates and I for very long," Lee grinned, giving the boy the Nice Guy Pose.

Naruto rolled his eyes, feeling Tsunade and Anko both go somewhat stiff beside him. "You're not looking for a fight, are you guys? Please tell me you're not, I don't think I can handle cleaning up the mess these two are going to leave of you if you are, on top of everything else that's happened tonight."

Neji narrowed his eyes but let the perceived insult slide. Besides, it wasn't much of an insult when he registered the two intoxicated kunoichi with the boy as their former Hokage and a special jonin infamous for being prone to excessive violence—excessive violence in a world of ninja, at that. "No, Uzumaki. We are here on a mission from our Hokage to make contact with your team and relay a message to Tsunade-sama."

Nodding, the blond motioned for the trio to follow as he felt the kunoichi relax. "Well, these two are kind of out of it right now. Can it wait until morning?"

"That's fine," Tenten agreed. "Know anywhere we can stay until then?"

"You can stay at our place," the boy yawned. "We've got room, but I don't think we've got beds or anything yet, so you'll probably be sleeping on the floor. Sorry."

"Please tell me it's got a working shower," Tenten pleaded, hoping against hope.

Naruto shrugged. "I don't know. Hang on a second and I'll check," he said, bringing his fingers together in the final seal of kage bunshin. The clone that popped into existence disappeared a second later in a shunshin, Team Gai's eyes widening seeing the technique up close and recognizing it as different from the standard shunshin. "Yeah, it does. Guess they got the water and lights turned on when we bought it. So, who did they get to take over as Hokage?"

"Jiraiya-sama," Neji answered.

Naruto snorted. "Ero-sennin? Hokage?" the boy and his clone nearly dropped the kunoichi as they shook with laughter. "Oh, that's rich!"

"What's so funny about that? Wasn't your dream to become Hokage some day?" Tenten asked hotly, not quite sure why the boy making fun of their Hokage upset her as much as it did.

The blond's mirth quickly died down and he nodded. "I did. Still kind of do, but it's not like I have much of a say in it at the moment. You can't be Hokage of a village you've been exiled from. And I'm pretty sure they'd try to kill me if I tried to go back any time soon. They already have once."

"What do you mean?" Lee asked, one of his huge eyebrows creeping towards his hair-line.

"Anko here," the boy said, getting a yawn and a wave from the kunoichi in question, "was sent to kill me. She didn't, obviously, and now they're pretty pissed at her too."

"Why would they do that? I mean, they'd already exiled you, why would they need to try to have you killed," Tenten asked in confusion.

"Remove the thing keeping Tsunade out of the village and she may return," Neji surmised what he thought to be the council's reasoning. "She failed her mission so they had her declared a missing-nin."

"What the hell is going on?" Tenten mused, feeling shame towards her village for probably the first time. Sure, Naruto wasn't the most liked person in Konoha, but that was no reason to try to kill the boy if they'd already gotten what they wanted in the first place. ...Unless they wanted him dead to begin with and getting him out of the village was only the first step.

"It is not our place to question the orders of our superiors," Neji stated, drawing dirty looks from Naruto, Tenten, and Lee.

"That's kind of hypocritical coming from you," the blond pointed out, walking a little faster to put some distance between himself and the stoic Hyuuga. He was silent for the rest of the trip back to Team Hokage's estate and Team Gai stopped trying to make small talk after being ignored the first few times.

Sliding the door open, Naruto and his clone dropped Anko and Tsunade onto the sleeping bags laid out for them in the main room by Shizune and the clone that had been carrying Tsunade dispersed. "I don't know where everyone else decided to sleep and I don't think they'd like finding you in one of the other rooms, so it's probably best if you sleep down here," the boy said, pulling out a scroll and unsealing his own sleeping bag. He kicked off his sandals, pants, chuunin vest, and jacket—leaving him in only a pair of boxer shorts and a black tee-shirt with an orange spiral on the back—before climbing into his sleeping bag, not noticing the blush on Tenten's cheeks as she watched the boy undress in front of them. Pulling the sun glasses off of his shirt and the hitai-ate from his forehead, he set them aside before rolling over and trying to sleep.

Shortly after the blond had made his announcement, Team Gai spread out their own sleeping bags nearby and prepared to bunk down for the night. Tenten toed the blond's leg, getting his attention. "Where's the shower?" she asked.

"Down the hall, first door on the left," the boy said around a yawn, pointing over his head towards a darkened hallway.

"Thanks," she said, making her way towards the bathroom. After showering and toweling her hair dry, Tenten made her way back into the living room and grinned at the sight that met her eyes. Tsunade and Anko had moved their sleeping bags closer in their sleep and their limbs were tangled together. Neji slept face up and out straight, stiff and controlled even in his sleep. Lee had sprawled out across his sleeping bag and was snoring quietly, occasionally murmuring something about 'flames' and 'youth.' Naruto slept with his arms above his head and his legs spread out, his head turned to the side and his mouth open. Tenten could just make out a small trail of drool leaking from the corner of his mouth. Rolling her eyes, she crawled into her own sleeping bag and closed her eyes. Her last conscious thought before passing into sleep was, _'He's kind of cute, when he's quiet like that.'_


	9. Cracking Under Pressure

**The Missing Hokage**

**09: Cracking Under Pressure**

* * *

Hinata yawned and stretched cutely as the first rays of sunlight peeked through her new window. Sitting up from her sleeping bag, she made her way downstairs to prepare breakfast as today was her shift to cook in the group's chore rotation. On Anko's suggestion, she had stolen a pair of Naruto's boxers and had worn those to bed, and seeing as it would only be the other kunoichi and Naruto here anyway, she had decided to follow another of Anko's suggestions and wear less concealing clothes—at least around the house for now, until she felt more secure wearing something somewhat more provocative outside.

Walking quietly through the still-dark living room, she found her way into the kitchen and began to prepare a simple traditional breakfast of rice, miso soup, and one or two other things that she felt Naruto might enjoy that didn't involve ramen noodles. Some time later, she turned her head slightly to the side to see her favorite blond stumble into the kitchen and freeze, his eyes going wide at the sight of her there. Blushing slightly, she smiled at the boy. "Good morning, Naruto-kun."

"G-good morning, H-hinata-chan," the boy stammered for a moment. Blinking, he shook himself out of his stupor and grinned at her before turning his eyes towards the living room momentarily. "You might want to get dressed. We have company."

Raising an eyebrow, Hinata scolded herself for passing off the other people sleeping in the room she'd walked through as simply the other members of her team. "Who would visit us here?"

"Gai-sensei's team. They found us last night as we were coming home and said they wanted to talk to Tsunade-baachan," the boy explained, then seeing her mood visibly sour, asked, "Is something wrong?"

Hinata shook her head. "I-it's nothing," she denied. "Would you mind watching this for me while I go get ready for the day?"

"Sure, I don't mind," the boy agreed. "Are you sure you're ok?" he asked as she walked quickly from the room.

Smiling softly at his concern, Hinata nodded. "I am fine, Naruto-kun. Perhaps you should get dressed as well," she pointed out, drawing the blond's attention to his own state of undress.

"Ack! Thanks," he mumbled, quickly ducking into the living room and pulling on his pants before making his way back into the kitchen to make sure breakfast didn't burn.

Hinata made her way quickly back up to the bedroom she'd claimed as her own the night before, her heartbeat quickening with every footstep. Closing the door behind herself, she leaned against it and took several deep, steadying breaths. They didn't help much. The truth was, she had lied to Naruto—she was just about as far from fine as she could be at the moment without being dead. Ever since she had agreed to leave Konoha with Tsunade, Shizune, and Naruto she had felt it—a small, but growing, nagging sensation at the back of her mind that no matter how hard she tried, she would never—could never—escape her fate as heir to the Hyuuga clan, or as sister to the heir and thus destined to be sealed into the Branch House of the Hyuuga. Up until now she had ignored it mostly, focusing on her studies and training and the thrill of finally being alone—well, at least relatively so—with Naruto. Biting down gently on her bottom lip, she gathered her things and made her way to the bath room. Maybe by the time she got out she would be able to deal with the reminder downstairs of just how futile it was for her to run.

It was nearly an hour later before Team Hokage and Team Gai had woken and gathered around the low table for breakfast. Anko and Tsunade were both nursing cups of coffee and occasionally shot glares in Shizune's direction, who outright refused to do anything for their hangovers. Tsunade would herself, were it not for years of experience with both medical jutsu and hangovers reminding her that the two didn't mix well, and trying to cure a hangover _with_ a hangover was a very, very bad idea. "So, why are you three here?" Tsunade asked the question on nearly everyone's mind after she decided she was sufficiently caffeinated to deal with whatever problem they were going to throw her way this early in the morning.

"Hokage-sama sent us here to attempt to establish a line of communication between yourself and the village," Neji answered.

"Oh? The council finally outed me huh? So, which sucker did they get to take the job?"

Tenten slapped a hand over Lee's mouth before he could shout his answer, and possibly get himself killed for his trouble judging by the way the two hung-over kunoichi's hands had strayed towards their kunai the moment the Gai-clone had opened his mouth. "Jiraiya-sama accepted the position."

Tsunade snorted, nearly spilling her coffee. Beside her, Anko _did_ spill her coffee, not to mention painfully spraying some of it from her nose. "I didn't think they'd take that seriously," Tsunade snickered.

Across from her mentor, Shizune wore a mildly-disgusted look at Anko's reaction. "They probably tried to ignore it, but with the alternatives being what they were I think Jiraiya would rather do the job himself than let Konoha fall into enemy hands."

"'Into enemy hands?'" Tenten questioned. "What do you mean?"

"Danzou," Tsunade, Shizune, and Anko all answered simultaneously.

"That old guy?" Tenten asked, confused. "I don't know much about him, but wouldn't being a cripple disqualify him from being Hokage?"

"Not necessarily. There are many different kinds of strength that are sought after in a candidate for Hokage, and political clout and years of experience can sometimes make up for other handicaps. Konoha's in a tough spot right now and having a leader who could maneuver them into a better political position would be more useful at the moment than someone who had less political pull but all the strength and skill required to protect the village from attack. That's beside the point though," Tsunade continued. "Did he say anything else, or did he just want to send someone out here to let me know he had the job?"

Tenten answered, it having been unofficially decided that she would be their team's spokesperson for the time being. "Just that he was working on reversing the situation and that he wanted to see if you would be adverse to letting one of us stay on with you for the time being to act as a temporary diplomatic liaison between Konoha and yourselves."

Placing down her chopsticks and wiping her mouth with her napkin, Hinata calmly stood and left the table. Having been traveling with the girl long enough to somewhat know her moods by now, Tsunade said, "We'll have to talk it over first."

Following Tsunade's lead, the rest of Team Hokage stood and left the room, Naruto creating a clone and sending it with the group while he stayed with Team Gai. "They're going to be talking for a while probably. I was going to go start my morning exercises, you guys want to come with?"

Getting general approval from the group—with a grunt he interpreted as a 'maybe from Neji—Naruto grabbed his sandals from the living room before leading them out the back of the house where they found Hinata practicing what Naruto recognized as some of the stances for Anko's Hebi style. "That is not jyuuken," Neji pointed out, getting an eye-roll from Naruto.

"Nope, it's not. Come on, we'll go over here where we won't bother her," he said, leading them away.

Hesitating for a moment, Tenten waved the blond off. "You know what, you guys go on ahead. I think I'll go spend some time with Hinata. It's been a while since we last spoke anyway."

A couple of minutes before Naruto lead Team Gai outside, Anko poked her head out the back door and waved at Hinata. "Come on, we've got to talk," she called, slipping back inside as Hinata created a clone and sent it in with the others.

Once they had found a secluded room, the group sat down to discuss the current situation. "Well?" Naruto asked, already getting impatient.

Tsunade rolled her eyes while Shizune spoke up to keep the older woman from snapping at the boy, one hand idly rubbing the top of Tonton's head in her lap. "We shouldn't just make a decision on this without first discussing it, Naruto-kun."

"Why the hell should we let one of those brats tag along anyway?" Anko asked, not wanting to waste time.

"It would be somewhat advantageous to have someone from Konoha with us, if only because it will look as though we are not openly opposing them," Shizune pointed out. "This will make the other hidden villages less likely to see us as a threat and more likely to see us as a potentially valuable resource."

Tsunade nodded. "Jiraiya's no fool. He wants someone here for two reasons: to have a reliable means of passing messages between us and to placate the council. If the council decides we're a threat, which they probably already have by now, then they'll either send a team after us or issue a Kill On Sight order for all future teams. That's a hassle we don't need right now."

"If they've got a new Hokage and Jiraiya's trying this, then it probably means they've already tried to issue a KOS and were denied," Anko pointed out. "At least some of the council wants to keep us—or at least you—around for a while, even if it means that we're out here actively defying what they've been preaching to new shinobi for generations. That is, loyalty to one's village above all else. If they let us stand for too long though, then people are going to start to wonder why they bother to hunt down missing-nin like they do."

"Ok, I can see that, but why them?" Naruto asked. "I mean sure, they're all pretty good ninja, but isn't this a job for jonin or at least chuunin?"

Shizune nodded. "This is exactly the sort of mission that would be assigned to a chuunin or jonin. By assigning it to a genin, even a team of genin, Jiraiya-sama hopes to appease the council by showing that he is not _wasting_ their resources on trivial matters."

"Genin are expendable," Anko explained.

Tsunade nodded. "With the shape they're in right now, Konoha needs every available jonin out in the field on as many high-paying missions as they can manage at the moment. If they can't keep up with the work load, people will eventually look elsewhere for ninja services. There's already another ninja village operating inside Fire Country, and with us out here that just makes for more competition. A jonin, even a chuunin would be a waste of manpower for a mission that won't pay anything and a better use for the jonin that would be assigned to us would be to simply assign another assassination attempt."

"So what you're saying is that if we take one of these guys on, it will buy you some time and keep Konoha off our backs for a while?" Isaribi summarized, knowing that despite the fact that she did not wear the Jiei hitai-ate, no ninja attacking the group would bother to make that distinction.

"Yes," Shizune nodded. "If we do agree to bring one of them along, who should we take?"

Glancing over towards Hinata, Naruto immediately suggested, "Not Neji." Hinata's small smile at that was all the proof he needed that her cousin was the source of her current bad mood.

Seeing the girl's reaction for themselves, the older kunoichi nodded their agreement. "We've already got a group composed nearly entirely of kunoichi," Tsunade pointed out, not bothering to point out the fact that despite that Isaribi was not a kunoichi, she was still female.

"Oh no you don't!" Anko grumbled. "One like blondie is enough. As great a person as Gai is, and as much as I love watching him and Kakashi having their little pissing contests, I don't think I could stand having Mini-Gai around for more than a week before I'd snap and kill him in his sleep."

Her words drew laughter from those who knew the green-clad pair of ninja and a dirty look from Naruto, who was beginning to feel outnumbered. "I believe Tenten would be the most likely not to cause conflicts within the group," Hinata spoke up after a moment. "I don't know her well, but I do know that she is very level-headed and perhaps the best choice at the moment."

Tsunade nodded. "Let's make it official then. All in favor of allowing Tenten to stay with our team and act as a liaison to Konoha?" Seeing everyone's hand go up, she felt no need to ask if anyone disagreed. "Ok, is that everything?"

Shizune shook her head and dug around through her bag for a moment before coming up with what looked like an oddly-shaped sword hilt. "No, there is still the matter of this. While the techniques and money stolen from Konoha can be evenly shared among the group, we also took Nidaime's Raijin."

Tsunade nodded. "There isn't much point in keeping the thing if we're not going to use it, and if we do decide to use it then it will only draw more attention to the fact that we looted it from Konoha before we left."

Nearly drooling, Anko took the weapon from Shizune and studied it closely for a moment. "I say we use it," she suggested, getting nods all around.

"Yeah, but who's going to use the thing? There's only one," Naruto pointed out.

"We could share it, like everything else. All of us could practice using it and take turns or something," Shizune suggested.

Anko shook her head. "No, for something like this, we need one person constantly using the thing and generally showing it off. I agree that we should all get some practice in and familiarize ourselves with it, but for missions or if we're going through a town, it should be one person that they can all recognize wielding it."

"Who did you have in mind?" Tsunade asked.

Smirking, Anko threw the weapon to Naruto. "Who else? Blond hair and orange draws the eye like nothing else. Add something as valuable as Nidaime's Raijin to the mix and the kid will stick out like a neon sign."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Weren't we trying to not stand out?" he asked, though inwardly he could barely contain his excitement.

"There is a time to stand out and there's a time to remain inconspicuous, Naruto-kun," Shizune answered. "What Anko means is that we should strive to become more memorable since we are looking for business. Eventually, jobs will come to us if we become popular enough with the villages of whatever nation we happen to be passing through."

Thinking on the matter for a moment, Hinata resisted the urge to poke her fingers together and suggested, "Why don't we look for other things like the Raijin?"

Tsunade nodded. "That isn't a bad idea. There are other various mystical or otherwise legendary weapons and objects scattered across the world. And the more help we have against Orochimaru, Akatsuki, and possibly Konoha and the other shinobi villages the better. I know for a fact my old teammate has the sword Kusanagi, so this will hopefully start to level the playing field."

"So what, you guys want to go after the weapons of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist or something?" Anko grinned, the idea sounding half absurd and half like the most fun she'd ever had.

"Well, I do know where one is," Naruto suggested slowly. "But it's marking a grave so..." he trailed off and shrugged.

"I don't think taking that particular weapon would be a good idea," Shizune said. "Aside from the potential bad karma involved, it would possibly annoy a few very powerful people."

"Ok then, we'll leave that one where it is for now," Tsunade agreed. "So, we're in agreement: we'll all practice using the Raijin and Naruto will hold onto it while we're on missions or in towns? And we'll try to dig up as much information as we can on other valuable or rare items and weapons and go after them when we don't have missions?"

The group nodded their agreement and they were getting ready to go announce the verdict to Team Gai when Anko snapped her fingers and called the group to a halt. "Oh, right! I knew I was forgetting something." Seeing their questioning looks, Anko's face grew serious. "What about our other friend from Konoha that's been hanging around?"

"Huh? Who?" Naruto asked, looking around in confusion.

"There is a ninja from Konoha wearing ANBU garb currently keeping watch over this building, Naruto-kun," Hinata pointed out. "He has been following us for some time."

"Do you recognize him?" the boy asked, getting a shake of her head in answer.

"Probably someone from Root," Anko said. "I've known he was following us since the boat back from Sea Country."

"I didn't want to piss off Konoha by attacking him openly and so far he's been content to sit back and watch and occasionally send out messages," Tsunade explained. "If he's still with us when we get to the port, we could try and arrange an accident at sea."

Anko smirked. "Now that sounds like fun."

"How has he stayed with us so far?" Naruto asked, scratching his cheek in confusion. "I mean, we've been riding toads most of the way here since we got back on the mainland. You'd figure we would have out-paced him by now."

"We don't know, Naruto-kun," Shizune answered. "That's another reason why we've left him alone."

"As I said, he's probably Root, so he shouldn't be too much of a problem to take out," Anko shrugged. "Problem is, if he can keep up, then he might be more of a pain in the ass than we can handle without taking losses. I got a message from my contact in Konoha saying that the council is up to something last night, after we got back. With any luck, Danzou's going to be too busy to mess with us and he'll have to order his little toy back home."

"Let's not count on luck," Tsunade grumbled, reminded again of the previous night's losses in the gambling parlor.

Hearing that, Shizune sighed. "How much did you lose?"

Tsunade and Anko traded a look before answering simultaneously, "All of it."

"You lost two million ryo in a single night?" the medic asked calmly. Seeing the pair nod, she rolled her eyes. "I'm not surprised," she mumbled, taking a sip of orange juice from the cup she'd brought in from breakfast.

"That's ok though, I won it all back," Naruto grinned, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.

Shizune nearly drowned on her juice. Spluttering for air, she managed to choke out, "How much?"

The blond shrugged. "Dunno. I stopped counting after the first armful of bills. They said those were the highest bills they carried too, so I didn't bother."

Glancing between Anko and Tsunade's smirking faces and the fox-faced blond, Shizune went very pale. "Naruto-kun, you are not allowed to go back to a casino with either of those two again. Ever. And especially not both of them."

"Why the hell not? If the kid's got a lucky streak a mile wide, we might as well put it to good use making some quick cash," Anko complained.

"No, I don't think you understand me. He can go all he wants, just not with you two."

"What? Why not?" Tsunade asked, narrowing he eyes at her first apprentice.

Shizune grinned. "Because if we're going to make easy money, then I don't want you two losing it faster than he can gain it back. That's kind of counter-productive."

"What are you complaining about? You've got enough cash to _buy_ a casino anyway," Anko grumbled.

"What do you mean, 'me?'"

Tsunade grinned. "We've noticed that you seem to have taken it upon yourself to become official book-keeper and account manager for the group. ...Though buying a casino or building our own isn't that bad an idea. It would be a guaranteed source of easy income."

Naruto shook his head. "No thanks."

"Why not?" Anko asked. "It's a great idea."

The blond boy rolled his eyes. "Do you even pay attention to anything other than the money you're losing? You see the kind of people that were in there?" Getting blank looks from the pair but a nod of understanding from Shizune, he continued. "Sure, those places are great for convincing rich people to part with their cash, but they also draw in people who don't have the money to waste on it but do so anyway. Most of the people in there last night were either broke or are by now. I don't want much to do with a place that can do that to people. Ripping off rich assholes is one thing, but stealing from people who can barely afford clothes is just wrong."

Seeing that the boy was dead set on this and seemed to have the support of Shizune, Isaribi, and Hinata (who he would have had, regardless) the pair realized they were outnumbered on this issue. "Fine," Tsunade grumbled. Beside her, Anko mumbled a "You win," before rolling her eyes.

Earlier, outside, Tenten made her way over towards where Hinata was practicing wondering what she was going to say to the younger girl. Leaning up against a tree near where the Hyuuga girl was practicing, Tenten smiled when Hinata's eyes swept over her for a moment. Her smile drooped when the younger girl ignored her. "Have I done something to piss you off?" Tenten asked, growing mildly annoyed at being given the cold shoulder.

"No," Hinata answered, again going through the first few movements and stances of the Hebi kata that Anko was working with her on.

Slowly unstrapping a few of her weapons pouches, Tenten asked, "Do you want to spar or something?" Getting no response from the shorter girl, she continued. "I mean, it would probably be better if you had someone to practice using that on than to just stand there and go through the motions until we go away." Again, she got no response. Narrowing her eyes, Tenten took a deep breath and stilled herself to keep from shouting in frustration. "You're acting just like Neji."

The response Tenten got to _that_ was immediate and violent. Dodging the gloved fist that blurred towards her throat, Tenten brought her hand up to sweep the arm away and try to open a hole in Hinata's defenses for her own attack. She was reminded—too late—that she was fighting a Hyuuga when her hand went numb as it made contact with the younger girl's arm. Tenten blinked in confusion for a moment—of all the times she'd fought Neji, he had always used his jyuuken through his hands, not on contact with another part of the body. It turned out to be a moment too long as Hinata spun with the direction her blow her been diverted in, driving an elbow into Tenten's gut and completing the spin with a kick towards her now-lowered head.

Ducking under the foot, Tenten sucked in a harsh breath and stepped forward with a kick of her own, missing her target as the girl moved her upper body to the side just slightly and her hands struck out against Tenten's leg, closing off several tenketsu before the older girl could get her leg back away. Dropping down, Tenten swept her left leg out in an attempt to knock the smaller girl off her feet. Leaving her left leg planted where it was, Hinata brought her right over the sweep and into the back of Tenten's knee. Stepping closer with her left leg forced Tenten's own leg into a bind. She brought her free leg up and kicked Hinata's left leg out from under her, sending the smaller girl sprawling atop her. Several hard blows fell against Tenten's arms and chest, a few of those being jyuuken strikes. After a moment, the blows softened, slowing and coming to a stop after a moment when Hinata fisted her hands into Tenten's shirt.

Tenten barely made out a choked sob as Hinata shook against her. Bringing her arms up, she pulled the younger girl into a hug, running the fingers of one hand through her short hair. "It's Neji, isn't it?" she felt Hinata tense and nod. "And the rest of your family too, huh?" Another nod. Sitting up, Tenten pulled Hinata with her until they were leaning against the tree Hinata had been practicing near. "Do you want to talk about it?" She felt Hinata shake her head and sighed. "You should, you'll feel better. I'm guessing you either think you can't talk to someone in your group about this or you don't want to for some reason. You won't know if they'll listen or not unless you try."

Taking a deep breath, Hinata pulled away from the taller kunoichi and wiped at her eyes. "I'm sorry. I took my frustrations out on you and that was wrong of me."

Tenten shook her head. "You don't have to apologize for that."

They sat in silence for a few moments before Hinata bit her lip and spoke quietly, deciding to take Tenten up on her offer. "I was just so angry and scared when I learned that your team was here. It's been so wonderful being away and I thought that maybe I could just forget... But I was wrong. I know they're going to come for me soon, and if you found us so easily..."

"You guys weren't exactly hiding," Tenten pointed out.

"I don't want to go back. I can't go back."

"I know. Neji told me, they're going to make an example of you to the other Hyuuga if they ever get you back," Tenten sighed. "But you've got friends here. I really don't think they're going to just let your dad march in and drag you back without a fight."

Hinata once again wiped at her eyes and nodded. "I know," she agreed quietly. After a moment she stood and offered her hand to Tenten. "The others are finished. We've decided to let you stay, if you want."

Smiling, Tenten accepted the hand up and followed the younger kunoichi back towards the house. "I think I'd like that." She slowed as they neared the entrance and asked, "Friends?"

Hinata nodded, smiling. "I would like that."

After a moment, Tenten chuckled as her leg wobbled. "Any idea how long this jyuuken's going to last? I'm all tingly."

Naruto, Lee, and Neji came in shortly after Hinata and Tenten and the two groups gathered in the living room. "As you're probably aware by now, we have decided to accept your Hokage's offer to have one of your team liaise between ourselves and Konoha," Tsunade stated. "We took a vote and it was decided that Tenten would be best suited to the job at the moment."

Neji nodded. "Then we shall inform the Hokage of your decision."

"You don't have to leave right this moment," Shizune protested as Neji and Lee made ready to leave. "Feel free to stay another night if you like."

"I'm afraid we really should. Konoha needs us at the moment, and Jiraiya-sama wanted us to report back as soon as possible," Neji argued.

His eyes tearing up beneath their huge brows, Lee took Tenten's hands in his own and gave the kunoichi a solemn look. "We will miss you very much. I promise to think of you every day our team is apart!"

Tenten rolled her eyes and shook Lee's hands off. "Give me a break. It's only for a little while, you know. Eventually, I'll be stuck back in Konoha listening to you and Gai-sensei prattle on like you always do."

"Yosh! Your resolve in this trying time shall give me the strength to endure your absence!"

This time, Neji rolled his eyes. "Come on, we're leaving," he announced, grabbing his teammate's green spandex clad arm and hauling him forcibly from the building.

"Well, that wasn't awkward at all," Anko snickered.

Naruto shook his head. "I think the word you're looking for there is 'freakish.'"

Turning to regard the group, Tenten asked, "So, um... what are we doing?"

"I think we should set some ground rules," Tsunade answered. "You're bound to walk across some of us training eventually, and while I wouldn't mind it if you trained with us, we would like for some of our secrets to remain secret. If we ask you to leave an area, please do so."

Tenten nodded. "Sure, no problem."

"The group votes on all major decisions, but as you're an outsider, you won't have a say in the decision-making," Tsunade continued, getting another nod. "If you help us complete a mission, you will be given a portion of the pay. We'll pay for most of your supplies and repairs, so long as they're within reason. Should you want to learn any techniques other than standard medical jutsu, which I will gladly teach you if you're interested, then you'll have to trade for it."

"Trade what?" Tenten asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Preferably another technique or skill," Shizune answered.

Tenten blushed. "I... uh, I'm sort of specialized... I only really know weapons well. I don't know many ninja techniques outside of those used in conjunction with weapons or other ninja tools."

"That's fine. We'll think of something if the situation comes up," Tsunade nodded. "Any rarities, treasure, loot, or anything of interest recovered from missions will be considered the property of the group. And finally, if you decide at any time to leave Konoha and join us, then we'll vote on the matter. We won't try to persuade you and we won't try to force you."

"What do I get if I decide to join up?" Tenten asked, not seriously considering the idea but wanting to know ahead of time what would be in it for her.

"The same thing everyone else gets," Shizune smiled. "So long as the original contract holders agree, you will be allowed to sign whatever summoning scroll you like and as many of them as you like. We will also share training techniques and whatever jutsu we feel ok with letting you learn until we're more sure of your loyalties."

Seeing that they were done outlining the ground rules, Anko asked, "So, back to the original question. What are we doing today?"

"We need furniture," Shizune answered.

The group decided to put off training that day until the evening and wandered into town. On the way, something caught Tenten's eye and she pointed at the odd-looking sword-hilt hung from Naruto's side. "I-is that...?" she asked quietly, eyes going wide.

"Huh?" The blond asked, following her gaze down. "Oh. The Raijin. What about it?"

"Can I hold it?" the girl asked, nearly drooling. "Please?"

Rolling his eyes at the desperation and longing in the girl's voice, Naruto unhooked the weapon and handed it to the girl. "Just don't try to activate it. We haven't really had a chance to mess around with it yet."

"Thank you," the girl whispered, holding the weapon reverently. After a moment, she brought it up to her face and cuddled it against her cheek as one might would a pet, getting odd looks from everyone in the group. Satisfied for the moment, she handed the weapon back and nearly giggled. "Please tell me we're going looking for more stuff like that." Seeing Tsunade nod, Tenten very nearly squealed. "If I join does that mean I get to play with any toys we find?" she asked, getting another nod. Tenten found it very difficult not to turn in her hitai-ate right then and there.

The group spent the next several hours selecting and purchasing furniture and various appliances for their new base of operations in Fire Country, occasionally sending Naruto's clones off to deliver a load of goods since the boy could make clones to spare. Afterwards, the group got a quick lunch at a local barbecue place before deciding to call it a day in town and head back. As they were leaving, Tsunade grabbed Shizune by the elbow and slowed down. "Go ahead without us, we'll be back soon," she called, leading her first apprentice back towards the business district.

"What are you scheming?" Shizune asked, knowing her mentor was up to something.

Tsunade smirked. "Oh, just a little surprise for those bastards on the council."

* * *

And back in Konoha, Jiraiya giggled, staring into a familiar crystal ball. _'Good thing Tsunade forgot this,'_ the old lecher thought, letting the crystal's field of view roam over the bath houses while his hands were busy with his brush and scroll, working furiously on the next Icha Icha. A knock sounded at the door and Jiraiya schooled his face, dropping a cloth over the crystal globe and turning towards the door. "Come in."

A chuunin—Nara Shikamaru by the look of it—strolled in carrying a stack of paperwork. "More paperwork from the council," the lazy chuunin announced, sounding bored beyond reason. Making sure the door was closed, Jiraiya grinned at the boy, earning a "Troublesome."

"Go over that crap for me. Anything that looks like a mission request, put it in that pile face down. Sort it by date, newest on top," he said, pointing towards a large—and growing—pile on the corner of his desk. "Anything that looks like those idiots wanting me to approve some new law that looks like it's going to cause trouble? Goes in that stack," he pointed towards a trash bin. "Stuff that looks like it might be useful can go beside the mission requests. Intel reports go over there," he said, waving towards the stack closest to him, which looked like he had actually looked through it.

"Why can't you do this crap yourself?" Shikamaru grumbled, sitting down in a chair across from Jiraiya and setting about his appointed task.

The old hermit grinned, pulling the cloth off the crystal globe and going back to his peeping. "See, that's the thing none of my predecessors figured out. Sure, Yondaime came closest by using kage bunshin to take care of most of this crap, but even then you're stuck with sets of crappy memory of boring paperwork. They should have learned to delegate menial tasks that shouldn't come to the Hokage in the first place."

"Why me specifically? I know you can't spare the jonin for it, but there are plenty of other chuunin more qualified."

Jiraiya shrugged. "Probably because you're a Nara. Asuma's said nothing but good things about you, and I knew your dad and grand-dad. I know you're smart and I also know that even if you don't want to do it, you can recognize the difference between the important stuff and bullshit that the council is going to have to learn to take care of for themselves."

Sighing in annoyance, Shikamaru went back to sorting through the paperwork. "This whole place is falling apart," he grumbled quietly, crumpling a document and tossing it towards the trash bin. "Do they seriously think you're going to let them pass a law that would undermine the Hokage's authority to decide his or her successor?"

Jiraiya smirked. "See, I knew you could tell the good stuff from the crap. Now, I need to express exactly how annoyed bullshit like this makes me and do it in a way that makes them look like idiots and that they can't easily fix..." Jiraiya murmured, glancing towards one of the discarded documents sent by the council. A moment later, he was about ready to give up when he glanced towards the still-active crystal globe. "Well now why not?" he giggled, a lecherous grin spreading across his face as he brought out another equally official looking document. Copying the signatures from one of the discarded documents, he added his own and the Hokage's seal to the new document before handing it to Shikamaru.

Taking the document, the Nara read it over before he rolled his eyes.

_The Council of Konoha does hereby request that the partition dividing the men's and women's baths in the hot springs be removed. Furthermore, this Council does hereby suggest that, due to losses of shinobi to the recent invasion, all public baths, hot springs, and public rest rooms be made Combined Gender as opposed to their previous Single Gender in an effort to increase the birth rate amongst the village populace and that all villagers, ninja and civilian alike, must strive to rectify this situation. It is with this in mind that this Council does hereby request that the legal age of majority in the village for civilians be lowered to fourteen and that all ninja of genin rank and above, regardless of age, be recognized as adults and given all the rights and duties that come with adulthood. Finally, this Council wishes to reinstate Article 15, Section C of the Shinobi Law Code to again allow multiple-partner marriages._

"Why do I get the feeling I'm going to catch hell for this at some point?" Shikamaru grumbled, putting the document in the Out pile.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Thanks to a couple of my reviewers for reminding me that while Jiraiya is a Sannin, a spy master, and an excellent ninja first and foremost... he is also a self-proclaimed super pervert and is prone to being just as childish as Tsunade and Naruto on occasion.

Secondly, I understand if the scene with Hinata and Tenten is not to your liking. However, I feel it needed to be done. The girl's lived her entire life under her father's—and by extension, the Hyuuga elders'—thumb and is finally getting a taste of freedom. She's bound to worry about the possibility that she'll be forced to go back and having that possibility essentially shoved in her face is bound to draw some negative reaction—and considering her character, given the fact that she has very little self-confidence even at this stage it's more likely to be tears as opposed to something along the lines of killing the next Hyuuga she sees. Went back over it to add more insight into her thoughts so that it doesn't appear like it's coming totally out of the blue as it did in the first version of this.

Finally, I've started a forum for this story. Any questions you have that you'd like an answer to, you can post over there.

Also, on a completely unrelated note, it seems is once again doing odd things with my word count. It rounded this one up for some reason, the last one down a bit.


	10. Tsunade's Law

**The Missing Hokage**

**10: Tsunade's Law**

* * *

The week and a half between arriving at Otafuku Gai and needing to set off for Neck Country and their next mission passed quickly for Team Hokage—plus two. Apart from the initial ruckus of Team Gai arriving and departing again, the rest of the time spent in their new base of operations for Fire Country passed quietly. That's not to say nothing got done though.

It was on the third day since Tenten had been added to the group that her turn on the chore roster came up. While she had gotten along well with everyone since agreeing to stay, the only person she'd really gotten close to was Hinata. The slightly younger kunoichi had desperately needed a girl her own age to talk to, and while Shizune, Anko, and Tsunade were all understanding they just couldn't relate to her as well as Tenten could. The bun-haired girl found herself quickly opening up to the Hyuuga in spite of whatever initial reticence she may have had. After all, Tenten really had no acquaintances her own age aside from her teammates, and certainly no female friends her own age. And as much as she respected and even loved her teammates to some extent, they weren't what she would really call friends. Lee was easy enough to get along with, if you ignored his more annoying tendencies, but they had nothing in common. Neji... well, she doubted the Hyuuga prodigy had any friends, and if he did then she and Lee weren't. He saw them as teammates and respected their skills, but it didn't go further than that.

Tenten nearly dropped the spatula she was using to break up and stir eggs when someone opened the refrigerator behind her. Turning around enough to see who had startled her, she rolled her eyes when she found Naruto drinking from the milk carton. "Morning," the blond greeted around a yawn, padding silently across the floor to peer at the eggs Tenten was working on. "Your eggs are burning."

Quickly cutting the fire off under the eggs, Tenten brushed them out of the pan and onto a plate. "Thanks." She fixed herself and Naruto a plate each of toast, eggs, and sausage and sat down, passing the blond the plate. She again rolled her eyes at him as he immediately dug in. "Eat slower, you'll enjoy it more."

Naruto paused, looking up at her quizzically, a bit of egg stuck to the side of his mouth. "What's wrong with the way I eat?" he asked, eventually noticing the egg and poking his tongue out to snag it before it fell off. "You're the third person to say that this week."

Tenten sighed. "Look, I know you're an orphan like me, but come on. They taught us table manners before we even got into the academy."

"When did they do that?"

"At meal time?" Tenten suggested, something about the blond's line of questioning striking her as odd.

Naruto shrugged. "I almost never ate with the other kids and when I did they tried to steal my food."

Tenten frowned, thinking back to her time before the academy. She knew that she and Naruto had been placed into the same orphanage, but she had rarely seen the blond around—especially at meal times. Giving up trying to recall a time she didn't particularly like, she decided to focus on the present. "Well, it's something you should know. It's pretty simple, mostly common sense really. Don't eat fast, don't make a mess of the table or yourself, don't chew with your mouth open, don't talk with your mouth full, keep your elbows off the table... stuff like that," she said, counting off each point on her fingers.

Sitting up straighter, the boy pulled his elbows off the table. "Why does it matter?"

"Because if you're with a group of people and you're the only one doing it, you make us look bad. Besides, it's kind of gross. You're not too bad though. Lee and the Akimichi kid are both worse." Thinking for a minute, Tenten grinned. "I have an idea. Think of it like any other thing you should do as a ninja. Be aware of your surroundings and try your best to blend in with those around you," she almost smirked. If the boy took her advice, then he'd wind up mimicking a group composed—at the moment—entirely of females and would be up to what most considered normal in no time.

"Yeah, but I don't see how it could be useful."

Tenten's smile faltered. Giving the boy's unasked question a moment of thought, she replied, "It's useful for diplomatic situations, in case you ever need to share a meal with someone of higher status." Deciding to try another route, she added, "Besides, girls like a guy who doesn't eat like a pig."

The blond nodded and the pair decided to hold off continuing their conversation as Anko made her way into the kitchen and turned on the coffee pot, followed shortly after by Tsunade. "This looks good," Tsunade commented on breakfast once she'd downed half her first cup, making herself a plate and sitting down at the table.

Anko smirked, making her own plate and sitting next to Tsunade. Taking a bit of the eggs, she waited until Tsunade did as well and swallowed. "Mmm, chicken menses," she grinned, drawing laughter from the younger two when Tsunade nearly choked on her eggs, though Naruto had no idea what the word 'menses' meant.

"I hate you."

A short while late, Tenten found herself outside with a Naruto—presumably the real one since he was doing his morning workout while a multitude of clones practiced various chakra control exercises. Tenten could have sworn she even saw a group of Narutos standing around a fire. The pair found themselves temporarily at a loss for conversation, which Tenten found odd since as long as she'd known of him, Naruto had always been a loud and very talkative person. Deciding that would be a good enough conversation opener, she brought it up. "You're awfully quiet."

"Hmm?" Naruto asked, rolling his head back to glance at her as he performed what would be the last in a long line of sit-ups. "Just thinking."

"What about?"

The blond shrugged, starting a set of leg stretches. "I have to go back to Konoha soon." Seeing her raise an eyebrow in question, Naruto explained. "I summoned Enma for the first time last night—the boss of the monkey summoning scroll. He was kind of pissed," Naruto grinned, scratching at his cheek. "Apparently that was a family scroll and we weren't supposed to sign it. He said he'd transfer our signatures over to the main scroll, but since we didn't bother to ask before we all signed only one of us would be allowed to summon him. And he made me promise to give the scroll back to Konohamaru when he gets older."

"But everyone else can summon everything but the boss, right?" Tenten asked, getting a nod in answer. "Well, then it's no big loss as long as one of you can summon him, right? There's only one boss to call most of the time, from what I've heard, and not everyone has the chakra for it anyway."

"I guess you're right. I didn't think about it that way," the blond grinned. "So have you signed one?"

Tenten shook her head. "Nope. Gai-sensei wouldn't let us sign his contract since Lee wouldn't be able to use it, and they're pretty rare. Most people with one don't want to share them. Really, you guys are kind of weird that way."

"So what do you do anyway?"

"Ranged fire support," Tenten answered simply before elaborating. "I'm pretty good with throwing weapons. I don't have any family techniques or anything, so I decided to go into weapons since there's a lot you can do with them and not many people specialize in them. You name it and I can probably hit a bulls-eye with it."

"So what are the scrolls for?" he asked, pointing to a pair of large scrolls Tenten usually carried. "Wait, didn't you use them for some technique in the chuunin exam?"

Tenten nodded. "They're really just storage scrolls I made with lots of weapons packed into them."

"You made them?" he asked, getting a nod. "Anko's trying to teach me sealing, but she hasn't covered storage scrolls yet. Can you teach me?"

Tenten shrugged. Remembering one of Tsunade's rules, she grinned and asked, "What'll you trade for it?"

"Kage bunshin?"

"Well, it _is_ a jonin-level technique," Tenten nodded. "But I doubt I have the chakra to do it more than twice. What good is it to me?"

Thinking for a moment, Naruto grinned. "I could tell you, but it'd be more fun to show you," he said, standing and creating a clone. Both pulled out a pair of shuriken and flung them at a tree. All four of the projectiles hit their mark and Naruto dismissed the clone, and thus its weapons, leaving a pair of shuriken stuck in the tree and a pair of gouges where shuriken had been before they'd disappeared.

"Wait, it duplicates everything on your person?" Tenten asked, getting a nod from the blond. As the possibilities ran through her mind, she giggled quietly. "Oh, that is awesome. You've got yourself a deal."

"Hey wait," the boy asked some time later, after they'd gone to get a blank set of scrolls and some ink and a brush. "If the scrolls you use are just normally storage scrolls, how did you get them to hover? And you did it too."

Tenten grinned, pulling out several kunai and holding them out. "I throw these with the scrolls," she said, allowing the blond to handle them. Each kunai had a length of wire wrapped around the handle.

"So it's a wire trick?" the boy asked, getting a nod. "What about the rest of the stuff? Don't they get tangled?"

Tenten shook her head. "I use chakra strings for those. I would use chakra strings for everything, but I'm not good enough to support my own weight and throw stuff at the same time yet."

"Could you teach me that too?" the blond asked hopefully.

Tenten nodded. "Sure. But what am I going to get out of it? I'm essentially teaching you everything I know and while I don't have a problem sharing, I don't like the idea of someone knowing everything about my art that I do."

"I don't know. What do you want?"

Tenten gave the question some thought before shrugging. "I can't decide. How about we just say you owe me one for now?" she asked, getting a nod in answer. "So, let me see how that's coming," she said, looking over at the seal diagram the blond was drawing.

The blond frowned at it as he looked it over himself, waving to a Hinata as she can inside and rummaged through the refrigerator for a jug of ice water. "Would be better if my brushwork didn't suck. I keep smearing crap. That's mostly what Anko's been teaching me, since she says there's no point in going further if I can't even write the seals properly."

Looking over his shoulder as she drank, Hinata frowned at the paper. "Does the amount of ink you use matter? Or the width of the lines used to make the seals?"

Tenten shook her head. "No, not really. It's a seal, it's going to do its thing regardless of how much ink you put into it usually. Some seals require a blood sacrifice, but it doesn't effect the actual drawn seals unless they have to be written in blood and a certain amount of it is required. Why?"

"So why use a brush?"

Tenten and Naruto both blinked. "Because... that's the way its supposed to be done?" Tenten asked, not sure herself.

"That might work," Naruto mumbled. After a moment, he grinned and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"What the hell?" Tenten asked, nearly jumping from her seat. "How long have I been talking to a clone?"

Hinata shrugged. "It's hard to tell. There isn't much of a difference between the clones and the original, as far as I can tell. There is no loss of intelligence or personality shift between the clones and the original and the only way to really tell them apart is to jolt one enough to disperse it."

Another Naruto came running into the kitchen, ducking past the two kunoichi and into a room they'd decided to turn into an office close by. Rummaging through a desk, he came up with a pen. "Ah ha!" Running back towards the kitchen, he sat down quickly and began to re-draw the seals Tenten had showed him. Several minutes later, he looked up and asked, "Well?"

Tenten leaned in to inspect the seal and nodded. "It looks normal, if a little small. Let's test it," she suggested, pulling out a kunai and setting it within the sealing circle—which Naruto had widened by simply using the ink to draw a larger circle from the main seal outward. "Why did you put in this part anyway?"

Naruto shrugged. "I thought the seal might be too small, and since it's all ink anyway I just connected it to the parts that mattered and made it bigger than the seal itself."

Channeling chakra into the small seal, Tenten was surprised to see the kunai—and the enlarged sealing circle—vanish. A moment later, she applied more chakra to the seal and the kunai reappeared. "Oh man, this is awesome. Why didn't anyone think of this before?"

Naruto shrugged. "It's probably some sort of tradition or something."

Behind the pair, Hinata smiled and carried the water back outside. It was good to see that they were getting along so well. Handing the water to Tsunade, she went back to her endurance training while the clone with Tsunade practiced trying to make her chakra pulse.

Later in the week, Tsunade and Shizune gathered Naruto and Hinata together and decided to test what they'd learned so far. After easily proving they had learned and retained everything they'd been taught or read from various books, Tsunade tested Naruto's chakra control before turning to Shizune. "What do you think?"

"Passable," Shizune nodded. "It's a lot better than it was. You might even be able to try to learn some of the basic jutsu that you weren't able to before because they required more control, like bunshin."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Why would I want to learn the basic version? I already know kage bunshin."

Resisting the urge to trounce the blond, Tsunade created a kage bunshin of her own followed by a regular bunshin. Both stood in front of the pair of trees and the woman flung a pair of shuriken at them. The kage bunshin exploded into smoke while the shuriken passed through the regular bunshin, leaving it undisturbed. "See? Kage bunshin are useful, but they're easy to destroy and once they're gone, you've left with no clone. Bunshin are just an illusion, a genin-level genjutsu. They'll stay around even if hit with weapons and other jutsu. Mix the two in a crowd and they'd be more effective than they are now. Have your clones use kawarimi to switch with something and leave a normal bunshin in place and they'd stop getting destroyed as fast."

Naruto grinned. "Guess I'm learning that next."

"Actually, no," Shizune shook her head. "At least not from us. We've got something else in mind Naruto-kun."

"It's time to move on to the next phase in your medical training. Both of you create a pair of clones. One set of you will be learning a new medical jutsu, one set of you will be learning a technique from the forbidden scroll, and the other set will be working on my strength technique. Since you've already got the basics down, you can help with that part Hinata."

The two chuunin nodded, each creating a pair of clones as Tsunade and Shizune did the same, the three groups scattering across their property. One of the groups headed across what qualified as their back yard to a small stream. "You're going to be learning two new medical techniques. The first is fairly easy and builds on what you've already learned from the diagnostic jutsu. You'll take a leaf and use your chakra to separate out the chlorophyll from it."

"The stuff that makes it green?" Naruto asked, getting nods from the kunoichi.

Shizune continued explaining the technique where Tsunade had left off. "There isn't really any specific jutsu for this—it's all chakra control. You use the diagnostic jutsu to search for chlorophyll and then use chakra to remove the pigmentation without damaging the leaf. Once you get that, you can move on to identifying and separating out other things. Eventually, we'll teach you how to identify and remove poisons using this technique."

"What else are we going to be learning?" Hinata asked, almost as anxious as Naruto to move on to the next part of their training.

Tsunade smirked. "How to revive a fish."

Naruto blinked. "Huh?"

Rolling her eyes, Tsunade dipped her hand into the stream and came up with a small fish. She dropped it onto the ground and waited until it stopped flopping and started suffocating. Kneeling, she extended a small field of green chakra from her hands and the fish started moving again. Picking it up, she quickly dropped it back into the stream and it swam off. "It's a lot harder than it looks. There's a lot of theory behind it and usually months of study on the 'spark of life' and such. Normally, that would be a test in and of itself, trying to figure out what it requires to resuscitate someone or something, but since you've gotten this far I think it'll go by faster if we just explain how it's done instead of letting you try to figure it out on your own."

Hinata, who had been watching with her Byakugan active, nodded. "Are there any seals to it?"

Shizune shook her head. "There aren't, it's another case of raw chakra manipulation."

Grinning, Naruto plucked a fish from the stream and dropped it in front of them. "Show me again."

Across the property from the group at the stream, another group stood in front of a cluster of trees. "So, what kind of jutsu are we going to learn?" Naruto asked, a wide grin on his face.

"Shuriken Kage Bunshin," Tsunade answered.

"What? That's cheap! I already know kage bunshin," the blond complained.

"But do you know how to clone projectiles, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked, drawing the boy's attention.

Naruto nodded, creating a kage bunshin and having it throw a kunai before dispersing both. "See? Same thing."

Shizune shook her head. "No, it isn't," she denied, pulling out a kunai of her own and throwing it. She brought her hands together into a few seals and the kunai replicated into ten of itself before they struck the trees.

"Teach me," Naruto grinned, immediately seeing just how useful this particular variant of kage bunshin could be. If he were carrying twenty kunai on his person and created a hundred clones, together they would have two thousand kunai. But with this, each of those two thousand kunai could be replicated into hundreds of copies, raising their numbers exponentially. It could turn a barrage of thrown weapons into a solid wall of them.

Seeing Naruto ready to jump right into learning the technique without knowing anything about it, Hinata asked, "How much chakra does it use? And why was it in the Forbidden Scroll?"

"Not nearly as much as regular kage bunshin," answered Tsunade. "Per replication, it's pretty small. About what it takes to make a normal bunshin. It was restricted because too many ninja were trying to spam it against enemy ninja in large numbers. Even if it doesn't take much chakra to use, the more you create the more chakra you use. They either died of chakra exhaustion or were killed by enemy ninja because they didn't have enough chakra to fight back."

"Well, then we just won't make that mistake," Naruto shrugged.

* * *

Back in Konoha, things were more hectic than ever. There had been a massive public outcry over the council's most recently passed law and several of the village kunoichi and civilian women were still very displeased and nearly ready to take up arms. There had also been a massive public celebration by the single men of the village, so Jiraiya took that as a win. And as he'd hoped, the council was powerless to do anything about it at the moment, since he had appeared publicly and argued 'on their behalf' in favor of the law.

It was a busy week for Jiraiya. Hyuuga Neji and Rock Lee returned from their mission to report success and that their teammate Tenten had agreed to stay with Tsunade's group, or as Jiraiya had begun to call them after receiving Neji's report and reading the bit about what Tsunade'd had carved onto their hitai-ate, 'Tsunade's Independents' or just 'The Jiei.' A messenger bird from Iruka reported that he would back by the end of the week. Kurenai reported one positive civilian recruit, but had yet to make a move on her other hopeful.

On the last day of that week, several important events took place. Early that morning, Hyuuga Hiashi and the Hyuuga Elder Council summoned a small group of active-duty Branch-House Hyuuga to their meeting chambers. Among them was Neji.

Once all of the branch-house members were kneeling before the gathered elders, Hiashi spoke. "My informants tell me that your team made contact with Tsunade's group of traitors. Was my daughter among them?"

"I can not answer that question, Hyuuga-sama."

"Answer the question, you impudent little brat," one of the elders demanded testily.

Neji shook his head. "I can not. I am under orders from Hokage-sama not to speak of the matter. If your informants were able to gather the information they claim, then surely they must be able to tell you more than I."

Hiashi waved his hand towards the Hyuuga who had threatened the boy, his hands already coming up into the seal that would activate the Caged Bird seal. "There is no need for that. If he has been ordered not to speak of it, then we are not to force him to."

"Loyalty to the clan comes before loyalty to the village or the Hokage, you know that Hiashi," another of the elders sneered.

Hiashi shook is head, not pointing out that those words would be enough to have that particular council member imprisoned for conspiracy to commit treason. "It doesn't matter. Our information tells me they are in Otafuku Gai. You will lead a team to retrieve my daughter and bring her before this council so that we may apply the Caged Bird seal and officially instate Hanabi as the heir to the clan."

Dismissed, the gathered branch members left the elders' chambers, packing what few supplies they felt they would need and setting out for Otafuku Gai. Had they left by the south gate, they would have passed Iruka on his return from his meeting with the Fire Lord. Making his way up to the Hokage's office, Iruka was let in as soon as the secretary outside announced his arrival.

Jiraiya took the documents Iruka offered him and waved for the chuunin to have a seat. "How did it go?" he asked, wanting to get Iruka's opinion on the matter before he read anything.

"I don't remember the exact wording," Iruka sighed, taking a sip of water from a glass the secretary brought in. "But the general gist of what he had to say was that he was displeased that the council would attempt to throw his name around on a matter he had not been made aware of in an attempt to strong-arm the leader of his ninja forces. However, he also wishes to express that he trusts those elected to the office of Councilor and therefore supports their order of banishment."

"Fucking idiot," Jiraiya groaned.

Iruka nodded in agreement. "He did also say that anything approved by Tsunade before she left was still legal and pointed out that her law banning certain seals could be upheld and enforced without conflicting with the law allowing the clans to govern themselves."

This was very good news for Jiraiya. "Excellent. Yamato," he called, waving towards a corner where Tenzou/Yamato had been standing guard. "That group I asked for?"

"Awaiting your orders, Hokage-sama," Yamato reported.

Jiraiya stood, placing the folder Iruka had brought him onto his desk. "Iruka, take the rest of the day off. Show up here Monday morning."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," Iruka nodded, leaving the office as Jiraiya dismissed him.

Turning back to Tenzou, Jiraiya said, "Who do you trust most in that group?"

"Yuugao, sir," Tenzou answered quickly.

"Thought so," the sannin nodded. "I want the two of you with me. Everyone else is to follow. We're going to go pay the Hyuuga a visit. Unless I'm mistaken, they should still be in a meeting."

The sannin left the office while Tenzou went to pass along his orders. Jiraiya was rejoined by Tenzou and Yuugao at the gates to the Hyuuga complex. Ignoring the guards, they made their way inside towards where Jiraiya knew the Hyuuga Elders' meeting chamber to be. They found the building separated from the main complex that made up the rest of the Hyuuga's living quarters. Jiraiya signaled the remaining ANBU to circle the building and cut off any escape routes while he, Tenzou, and Yuugao made their way up to the entrance.

"I'm sorry, Hokage-sama. The Elders are in a meeting and do not wish to be disturbed," a branch-family Hyuuga announced quietly, barring the group's path.

"And that's the problem," Jiraiya said, rolling his eyes. "The hitai-ate you wear—who does it symbolize loyalty to?"

"Konohagakure and our Hokage," the Hyuuga answered.

"Then why do you attempt to block my path?" the sannin asked.

"I have been ordered—"

"By who?" the sannin interrupted. "I don't recall giving any such orders. As a ninja of Konoha, you take your orders from me. Not the village council, not your clan head or elders. Now, stand aside. I need to remind the people inside just who they work for."

Jiraiya waited until the branch-house Hyuuga stood aside before throwing open the doors and marching in, flanked on either side by Tenzou and Yuugao. "What is the meaning of this, Jiraiya?" one of the Hyuuga elders demanded—coincidentally enough, the same one who had been perfectly willing to punish Neji for following the Hokage's orders earlier that day.

Yuugao disappeared from beside Jiraiya, reappearing beside the elder with her blade drawn and pressed firmly to his neck. "You _will_ address Hokage-sama with the proper respect," the masked kunoichi warned quietly.

"Don't bother getting up," Jiraiya grinned, shooting a glance towards several of the elders who looked ready to bolt. "This will only take a moment of your time."

"What would you discuss with the Hyuuga, Hokage-sama?" Hiashi asked, perturbed at having their meeting interrupted but seeing the situation for what it was. His eyes narrowed in preparation to activate the Byakugan.

"Ah, none of that," Jiraiya warned. "You have no need to use those eyes."

Ignoring his warning, one of the Hyuuga expanded their sight. "We are surrounded!" she growled, standing and moving into a defensive position, joined by many of the others.

Jiraiya sighed and shook his head. "You see, that's what I came here to talk about. You have a bad habit of either ignoring what I say or trying to find a way to go against it. Not just me, but every Hokage since the First. Frankly, I'm getting a little bit tired of it. They may have put up with that bullshit, but I'm not going to. The law laid down by Shodai does give you the right to govern yourselves, but it does not give you the right to disobey my orders. Some of you seem to believe some silly notion that your orders can supersede my own inside of your own clan."

"And your ANBU?" Hiashi, who had remained seated along with the elder still on the edge of Yuugao's blade, asked.

"That's another thing. As the leader of this village, it is my place to give orders. As my subordinates, it is your place to follow them—not to question them. Now sit down, all of you." Seeing that they remained standing, Jiraiya sighed. "See, this is what I was talking about. I just gave you an order and you openly defy it. That alone is enough to bring you in on charges of treason."

"You wouldn't dare!" one of the standing elders growled. "Konoha can not spare the loss to her forces."

Jiraiya nodded. "You're right. I can't spare to lose ninja." He gave them a moment to look smug for pointing that out before bringing up a point of his own. "It's a good thing you're just a bunch of wrinkled-up, useless old bastards."

"How dare—"

"Shut up," the sannin growled out. "Now I realize a charge of treason would be pretty damn difficult to prove, so that's only part of why I'm here. No, I'm here to enforce Tsunade's Law."

"And that would be...?" Hiashi asked, raising an eyebrow. He was well aware of the law Jiraiya was referring to, however it would never gain the Fire Lord's approval as it conflicted with the law established by Shodai to allow the clans to govern themselves as part of the deal the Shodai had made to convince the large clans to join and stay with Konoha.

"Tell me Hiashi, can the seal placed on the branch house members be removed?"

"No. Even if it could, this council would not."

"I see," Jiraiya nodded. "Then by order of the Hokage, you are all under arrest for violation of Godaime's Law."

"It's not a law! The Fire Lord has not approved it," the councilor who was still under Yuugao's blade pointed out, reaching one hand out to attempt to remove the blade at his neck.

"Oh, that? I got that in this morning," Jiraiya grinned, causing several of the elders to pale. "Now, how did the rest of that law go..."

"It's not possible. The Fire Lord would never—"

"Oh right, public execution," Jiraiya nodded, silencing their protests. "Thing is, it didn't exactly say when the sentence was to be carried out." Rubbing his chin in thought for a moment, Jiraiya shrugged. "Oh well, guess I've got some leeway on that."

"You wouldn't—" the councilor on the floor started, then shut up seeing Jiraiya's glare.

"To make this public though, someone would have to witness it," Jiraiya murmured, turning his attention towards Hiashi. "You'll do." Shifting his eyes towards where Yuugao knelt watching him for orders, Jiraiya nodded. "Kill them all, leave Hiashi."

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Any further protests or attempts to weasel out were cut off, literally, when Yuugao brought her blade down—cleanly severing the fingers that had been trying to remove her blade and slicing through the side of the councilor's neck. The rest of the elders, seeing one of their own fall, took up defensive positions and prepared to rush their way from the room. They were halted when the floor around their feet burst upward, trees and vines wrapping around their limbs and holding them in place. Several were crushed by the sudden plant growth, though two managed to get off a kaiten and free themselves. Yuugao ignored the spin and channeled chakra into her blade. Approaching one of the Hyuuga, she studied the technique for a moment before ramming her blade into the side of the sphere. The spinning came to an immediate halt as blood sprayed across half the room, the wounded Hyuuga cradling the stumps of his hands—cut off between the wrist and first knuckle—against his stomach. His screams stopped when Yuugao's sword punched through his throat and out the back of his head. Seeing her temporarily distracted, the last Hyuuga bolted towards the door, intent on forcing her way past Jiraiya and Tenzou. A rasengan stopped her progress and ended her life, leaving a bloody paste of what had once been her head.

Letting the technique disperse, Jiraiya turned towards Hiashi as the last elder's body dropped behind him. "You will turn over all documents pertaining to the Caged Bird seal to my office. You will not make copies of those documents or allow copies of them to be made. You will not show them to anyone but me. If you attempt to use the seal against one of the Hyuuga, I'll have your hands cut off. If any of the main-branch Hyuuga attempt to use the seal to harm one of those with it, I'll do the same. If even one of them kills a single member of the branch-house, I'll blind every last one of the main-branch Hyuuga. You will abolish the main and branch houses and fix the shit your clan has allowed itself to fall into since Shodai brought you to Konoha. If I catch wind of bullshit like this again, I'll pull out your eyes and feed them to my toads—maybe do it one at a time so you can watch the first one. You understand?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama," Hiashi bowed. "And what of my daughter?"

Jiraiya shrugged. "You've only got one. What about her?"

"Nothing," Hiashi shook his head, understanding Jiraiya's implications. As Tenzou and Yuugao sealed the bodies into scrolls, Hiashi asked, "Why are they doing that? Will they not be buried in the clan cemetery?"

"No," Jiraiya answered. "Their bodies will be burned. They will not receive headstones or markers. As of today, they never even existed." Seeing Hiashi nod, Jiraiya dismissed him. Once Yuugao and Tenzou were done, Jiraiya took the scrolls and dismissed the other ANBU as they made their way back towards the tower. "You two did good."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," they said at the same time.

"Do we have positive confirmation of the identities of all of Danzou's Root operatives?" Jiraiya asked.

Yuugao shook her head. "No, Hokage-sama. I have managed to gather what I believe to be most of them, but I am sure there are at least a dozen more than I do not know of."

Jiraiya nodded. "That's fine. Yuugao, I have a job for you."

"Yes, Hokage-sama?"

"Head out to Otafuku Gai. Find Tsunade's group and shadow them. If you spot another Root member watching them, take him or her out. If you are discovered, do not attempt to fight them and tell Tsunade I sent you."

"And what of Danzou?"

Jiraiya shrugged. "He'll probably figure out something's up eventually. I'm going to be dealing with the rest of Root while you're gone. If you're attacked, go to Tsunade for help." Seeing that she was dismissed, Yuugao saluted and disappeared in a shunshin. Jiraiya turned his attention towards Tenzou. "I think it's time we got some of those higher-ranked missions done. The village could use the cash. What do you think?"

"All of our regular jonin are either out on high-ranked missions or have been on too many recently to be reliable for any more any time soon."

"Yeah, you're right. Those guys need a break," Jiraiya nodded. "You wouldn't happen to know where I could find a group of jonin that haven't been deployed on anything recently would you?"

Behind his mask, Tenzou grinned. "I just might."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Not too happy with most of this chapter. It felt like it was missing something, really. Next chapter isn't written yet, so probably no update next saturday.

On sword vs kaiten: It's a technique that expels chakra around the body while the user spins. The spin throws off most physical attacks and jutsu. The problem with the technique is that it's vulnerable a couple of different ways. It is not a _perfect_ defense, but it is a good one. The user can't expel chakra for too long or they'll run out. At the top and bottom of the technique, the sphere it creates will be weaker while it will be stronger at the sides. Smash the shit out of it with something—a huge earth technique, for instance—and it won't stand as that's a case of there being just too much mass to deflect, it's physics. Like any technique, it can be overpowered if the user can't put out as much chakra as the person attacking—Kakashi's Raikiri/Chidori could probably cut right through one if he put more chakra into the attack. Kaiten kind of cheats the more-chakra thing, since it's using spin to deflect attacks, not outright stop them, but against some things that just won't matter. And in Yuugao's case, she uses a sword. Put enough force behind two feet or more of steel coated in chakra and direct it against a technique designed to deflect larger techniques not designed to focus on a single point of about an inch (about the width of a normal katana or similar blade), it'll punch right through. And hands make a prime and easy target to shut it down for good. I'll probably mention it again later in the story. If you don't agree, sorry, but I like it.

Noticed a few errors still in the chapter after, fixed them after posting. If you're seeing this, then you've got the fixed version.


	11. The Not so Haunted Castle

**The Missing Hokage**

**11: The Not-so-Haunted Castle**

* * *

The group of seven had traveled by toad towards the north, where their clients in Neck Country were waiting. They had all agreed that, because of the proximity to both Oto and Kumo, the group would keep an eye out for ninja from those two villages. After meeting up with the person who had supplied the mission request, they made their way up to what the locals called Kubisaki Castle.

As they topped a short rise on the mountain trail leading to the castle on Kubisaki Ridge, the thick fog banks they'd been walking through for the last few hours parted enough to give them their first glimpse of the castle—huge and ominous in the distance, back lit by the moon peeking through the thick cloud cover just enough to provide enough light to navigate by. "I will take you no further," their guide announced sighting the castle, turning and hurrying his way back down the trail towards the town.

Anko rolled her eyes. "I don't see what the big deal is. It's just a big damn castle, probably with a group of bandits holed up inside causing problems by disappearing a local every now and then. My guess is they're being sold as slaves. That Kaio woman is probably long gone by now."

"We were hired to look into her disappearance. We can't just write it off as a case of kidnapping, especially since the person involved is at least a minor diplomat," Shizune sighed, knowing Anko would probably be willing to do just that and then go collect the money. "You have to admit though, it is kind of creepy," Shizune added, shivering slightly in the cool night air.

Starting back down the path towards the castle, Tsunade waved the others onward. "Come on, we don't have time to waste standing around. Those people could be dead or dying by now."

The trail leveled off and turned to overgrown grass, nearly up to the knees of the taller kunoichi, which rustled softly underfoot. Seeing no lights on in the castle, Tsunade brought her hand up and signaled Anko, Shizune, Hinata, and Naruto to make a sweep of the building's exterior to check for guards—or any signs of life, really—while she, Tenten, and Isaribi knelt in the tall grass out of sight from any of the windows or doors.

The four assigned to make the sweep scattered, Anko and Hinata leaping onto the side of the castle and sticking to the shadows of the eaves near the roof while Naruto and Shizune made their sweep from the ground. A check of every window showed no one in any of the rooms viewable from the outside and when they regrouped with Tsunade, Tenten, and Isaribi they all reported the same thing: the castle appeared to be deserted. Aside from the main trail from the mountain path to the castle and the paths they had made themselves, there were no signs of anyone coming and going from the castle.

Thinking it over for a moment, Tsunade tilted her hat back until it rested against her back. "That wouldn't make sense even if what we assume to be a bandit or mercenary force is using the main trail single file, and even then it doesn't show enough signs of use for even a handful of men."

"Unless they're ninja and they're covering their tracks well, but even _we_ aren't that good," Anko suggested. "Missing-nin from Kusa maybe, but not likely. This is pretty far out of the way for them and there are better places to hide."

"Maybe the place really is haunted," Isaribi suggested, getting an eye roll from Tsunade and a snort of amusement from Anko.

Shivering, Naruto sent the girl a glare. "If it is, I blame you," the boy grumbled, getting a laugh from Shizune and a swat towards the head from Anko.

The girl shrugged before regarding the others. "What? You use chakra to stick to walls and throw around jutsu and you can't believe in ghosts?"

Shizune sighed. "That's... different. We don't have time to talk about this now, but we can when we get back."

"Shizune's right," Tsunade agreed. "Front door?" she asked of the group at large, getting a nod of agreement from Naruto, looks of skepticism from Hinata, Tenten, and Shizune, and a look that clearly asked if she was crazy from both Anko and Isaribi. "What? Have you got a better plan?"

"Yeah, how about something a little less suicidal? We know the rooms on the upper floors are empty, we should just enter through there," supplied Anko.

Naruto and Tsunade both rolled their eyes and started for the front door. "Where's the fun in that?" they asked, glancing towards each other briefly at the stereo effect.

"They're so alike it's scary," Tenten murmured, getting nods of agreement from everyone but the blonds in question. "Ah, crap. Wait up!" she called softly, rushing after her idol and the boy with her, the others following quickly.

Stopping just shy of the door, Tsunade stopped and grabbed Naruto's chuunin vest to bring him to a halt as well. "Hinata?"

Nodding, Hinata brought her hands up in the seal to activate her Byakugan, the veins around her eyes bulging as her sight expanded. Blinking, she frowned, stepping slightly closer to the door and reaching her hand out towards it but not quite touching it. "The whole building is laced with chakra pathways," she told them quietly. "There are no traps and there is no one on the other side of the door, but it's kind of hard to see through all the chakra."

"Just how much chakra are we talking about?" Anko asked, her eyes narrowing at the building.

"A lot," the girl answered vaguely. "Wait, I was wrong. The foundation appears to be normal stone. Just the building itself is producing chakra."

Shrugging, Tsunade reached out and pushed on one of the large double-doors and the door swung open with a creak. Naruto stepped inside ahead of her and the others followed. Looking around, Tsunade frowned as something nagged at the back of her mind but she brushed it off for the moment. "Still see no one?" she asked the Hyuuga girl, getting a shake of the girl's head in answer as the younger girl released her dojutsu. "Ok, we'll split up into teams and search the place. Naruto, Hinata, take this floor. Shizune, take Tenten and Isaribi and search the floor above us. Anko, you're with me in the basement. When you're done checking your floors, we'll meet up back here and go on to the higher floors, though I doubt we'll find anything there if we don't—" Behind the group, the door to the castle slammed shut, the bang echoing off the walls around them and causing most of the younger members of the group to jump. "Here," Tsunade finished, rolling her eyes. "It's just the wind."

Beside her, Anko frowned. "I didn't feel a breeze. Or hear one."

"Ok, what else could it have been?" the blond medic asked.

Anko shrugged. "Hell if I know. For all we know, the building could be alive. Hinata-chan did say it has chakra."

Frowning at that, Naruto hummed in thought for a moment. "That would make sense if..." he trailed off quietly before dismissing the thought. "Naw. Couldn't be." From somewhere behind the seal and in the back of his mind, he felt the fox stir for a moment as though perking up to take in its surroundings. Ignoring it, Naruto grabbed Hinata's hand and began pulling her towards the nearest door. "Let's go already," the blond grinned, excitement creeping into his voice as he lead the blushing girl deeper into the castle, pushing the nagging feeling aside for the moment.

Seeing the pair go off, Shizune sighed. "Come on you two, we might as well get started," she said, motioning for Tenten and Isaribi to follow.

"Looks like it's just you and me," Anko purred, leering at Tsunade.

The older kunoichi rolled her eyes. "Cut that out," she grumbled, heading towards what looked like the stairs into the basement.

As the pair descended, Anko started fidgeting. It wasn't much, it wouldn't even have been noticeable to anyone but a ninja, but Tsunade saw it for what it was and sent the younger kunoichi a questioning look. "You don't smell that?" the woman finally asked, getting a shake of the head from Tsunade.

"Smell what?"

Taking a deep inhalation through her nose, Anko's face scrunched up in concentration. "I didn't really notice it before, since I'm so used to smelling it... but this is different. Stronger. Smells like..."

Two floors above the oldest two kunoichi, Shizune frowned as something she'd been ignoring for a while became apparent. "There's no dust," she mumbled quietly, drawing Tenten's attention.

"What?"

"There's no dust," Shizune explained quietly. "A place this old and seemingly abandoned should be full of dust and cobwebs, not to mention spiders, ants, rats, and other such small animals."

Running a finger along the wall, Tenten pulled it back and checked the end of her fingertip. "You're right. This place is neater than my apartment back in Konoha..."

"So what would keep pests and vermin away?" Isaribi asked.

Tenten shrugged. "Humans, larger predators, or if there were no food or water to be found."

Coming to an intersection, the group found it guarded by a set of four suits of armor, kneeling so as to face down the way they'd come and out to the left and right. Ahead of them were stairs leading up to the next floor of the castle. "All the doors for the upper rooms must be along this hallway," Shizune supplied, turning to the left and walking quietly towards the nearest one. Drawing a kunai, she saw Tenten do the same while pushing Isaribi back against the wall and out of the line of sight of the door. Nodding, Shizune slowly turned the knob before throwing the door open. Looking inside, she found the room empty. "Clear," she announced quietly.

Nodding, Tenten made her way to the opposite side of the hall from the door to the next and the pair repeated the process until they got to the end of the hall. "This is weird. Most of these rooms are unfurnished and look like they haven't ever been used."

"Maybe the place _is_ haunted," Isaribi grinned.

Tenten rolled her eyes. "You keep saying that. What would you do if it were true and a ghost showed up right now?"

The younger girl shrugged. "Probably run screaming."

"Then why do you sound so excited about it?"

"Because it's fun," the girl answered simply.

"It's not fun," Tenten sighed. "It's dangerous. Ignoring the question of whether or not ghosts exist for the moment, we are in a castle which seems to be the epicenter of where several disappearances have taken place with an unknown but undoubtedly hostile force at work that we can find no trace of."

Shizune nodded agreement with Tenten, moving to the next door. Opening it, she looked inside and did a double-take upon seeing a futon. "This one's furnished," she said quietly, moving into the room followed by the others. Kneeling by the bed, she frowned. "Still warm."

"Then where the hell did whoever was sleeping in it go?" Tenten asked, turning back towards the door to the room. Blinking, she asked, "Did either of you close the door?"

Seeing Isaribi shake her head, Shizune's eyes narrowed as she started to stand. "I didn't hear it close," she murmured. Below her, the futon squirmed. Tsunade's first apprentice had just enough time to look down before it shot up from the floor and wrapped itself around her body, squeezing her arms to her sides.

From seemingly all around them, a voice growled out, _**"Eat."**_

"What the hell?" Drawling another kunai, Tenten started towards the futon wrapped around Shizune only to have first one foot then the other sink into the floor. Behind her, Isaribi screamed. Turning, Tenten saw a scroll that had been hanging from the wall had restrained the girl and Isaribi, along with herself and Shizune were slowly sinking into the now fleshy floor. "You just had to have a haunted castle," she groaned. _'Why'd I have to get stuck with the civilian?'_

On the ground floor, Naruto and Hinata entered the first room they came to, which seemed to be a dining room. Absently reaching out to flip on the light switch, the blond was surprised when the lights flickered and came to life. Looking around, the pair found a table set for seven, the dishes mostly clean but clearly used. "This looks fresh," Hinata said, motioning towards the food. "And the places are set for seven people. Weren't there seven people missing from Honey Country?"

Naruto nodded, sniffing the air. "You're right. Doesn't smell old," he mused. He felt the fox again stir in its cage. The boy blinked when he heard it chuckling. _'What's got you in such a good mood?'_

He felt more than saw the fox smirk. **It has a sense of humor.**

"Huh?" the boy questioned quietly, drawing Hinata's attention. Seeing his slightly vacant look, she bit her lower lip in trepidation, worried about what he could possibly be talking to.

**Have you not noticed yet? This entire castle reeks of its stench. And the soup that was in those bowls...** the fox cut itself off to have another laugh.

"Shut up," the blond growled.

"Naruto-kun?"

Blinking, the blond blushed, poking his index fingers together in a move that reminded Hinata of looking in a mirror. "Not you Hinata-chan, the fox." Deciding to turn his attention away from his annoying tenant, he turned away from the table and spotted a painting facing the dining room table. "Who's this old guy? He's kind of scary-looking."

Joining the blond beside the painting, Hinata studied it a moment before supplying, "The Lord of the castle?"

"As in Daimyo? If this is his castle, then shouldn't the capitol be nearby?" the boy asked, scratching his cheek in confusion. "I didn't know there were any large cities near here. We're kind of out in the middle of nowhere."

"Perhaps the capitol was razed in a war?" Hinata suggested, turning towards the door to begin searching another room.

Seeing her moving off, Naruto shrugged. "Could be," he agreed, starting to follow the girl. Movement out of the corner of his eye drew his attention once more to the painting. "Did that thing's eyes just move?" he asked, his own eyes narrowed. Shrugging it off, he hurried to catch up to Hinata. Leaving the room, he quickly caught up to the girl, who had headed down a hallway. At an intersection in the hallway, the pair found a seated suit of armor that was taller sitting than they were standing. "Creepy," the blond shivered.

Blushing, Hinata quickly reached out and took the boy's hand. Seeing his questioning look, she nodded. "Let's keep going."

Following along beside her, Naruto got the feeling that her holding his hand was more for his sake than her own. "I hate this kind of mission. Even going to the bathroom in this place would be scary," he grumbled quietly, drawing what sounded suspiciously like a giggle from the girl. He stuck his tongue out at her but quickly pulled it back in and attempted to look innocent the moment she noticed. The boy nearly jumped when a sudden rumble of thunder sounded from outside. "Ah crap. Guess it started raining now too. Could this place get any spookier?"

Coming to another door, Hinata opened it and the pair walked inside, Naruto reaching over to flip on another light switch. "There are so many books," the small girl said quietly, looking upon the rows and rows of book shelves. They made their way towards a back corner of the room where Hinata spotted a desk with several large scrolls on top of it and a lamp to one side. She reluctantly released Naruto's hand and picked up the first scroll, opening it.

"What's it say?" asked the blond, his hands going to the back of his head.

"Kubisaki Castle log," Hinata read aloud. "The last entry is from more than fifty years ago. _'The castle is surrounded by the enemy's army. Our citizens have been cruelly killed, and those remaining in the city are either half-alive or dead. Let me not linger in sorrow or become a phantom. But my grudge will remain in this castle. I will devour every person inside this castle without fail. I will destroy everything. And those who enter this castle, which bears the sign of Kubisaki Kouza, will be devoured!'"_

Beside her, Naruto shuddered. "'Devoured?' Man, this guy can really hold a grudge."

_**"Devour."**_

The pair jumped in fright at the voice, Hinata spinning around to find that the book shelves had rearranged themselves to block the pair in. "Wha—"

"What the hell?!" the blond yelled, even as books and scrolls started falling from the shelves. "Run!"

Hinata didn't protest when the boy grabbed her hand while shielding his head from the falling manuscripts when his other hand and lead her out a narrow gap between the circle of shelves and the wall. They were nearly to the door when another shelf slid across the room and blocked their path, a painting falling down to land facing them. "Kubisaki Kouza?"

"So he's the Lord of the castle?" the blond asked. His only answer was for the hands of the painting to reach out through the canvas and shove the pair of them against the far wall. Naruto had just enough time to turn his head and watch as he felt it shift into something familiar looking before the wall swallowed the pair of them and everything went black.

When Naruto came to again, the first thing that his him was the stench in the air. Wrinkling his nose, he flinched when a drop of water hit his face. His eyes shot open and he sat up, both relieved and oddly disappointed to find himself not in the familiar halls of the seal leading to Kyuubi's room, but a similar looking hallway in what he guessed was the basement of the castle.

**Do you understand now, little boy?** the fox chuckled from somewhere behind its seal.

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto grumbled irritably, looking around and spotting several figures laying on the floor. "Looks like everyone's here."

**Of course. It's not done toying with you before it decides to finish its meal. And then you'll be soup for someone else,** the fox snickered.

Naruto shuddered, going pale. "You're joking. That's what that was?" he asked quietly, getting an impression of a nod and more laughter. Standing, he again ignored the fox and made his way over to the others. "Hinata, wake up," he said, kneeling and shaking the girl's shoulder. The girl started, gasping awake and sitting up quickly, a blush adorning her face when she realized Naruto had been leaning over her in her sleep.

"Ow my head," a voice groaned from down the hall. The pair looked up to see Tenten leaning against one wall of the passage way they were in. "I think it dropped me on my head on the way down," she grumbled quietly before turning her attention to the other two. "Are you ok?"

"We're fine," Hinata answered quietly, standing and moving to help Naruto wake the other four members of their group.

"So, this place fell fifty years ago?" Anko asked as the group walked, after Hinata and Naruto had filled them in on the castle logs they'd found in what must have been the library.

Shizune nodded. "I can't believe I'd forgotten, but what she says makes sense. There was a civil war around that time and the capitol was burned to the ground, along the with Lord's castle supposedly."

"Everything that comes in here will be devoured, huh?" Tenten mused aloud.

Tsunade nodded, the nagging sensation that she was forgetting something from before was back. "It certainly seems that way."

"It's because we have been," Naruto mumbled quietly, drawing their attention immediately. Chakra in the walls, the walls and floor turning to flesh and pulling us down here, that spooky voice..."

"It's a summon," Anko grinned. "I _knew_ it smelled funny. But what kind? Smells sort of like a snake, but doesn't have quite the same musk to it."

Naruto nodded. "_It_ is pretty amused about the whole thing," he supplied, not naming the 'it' in question since he knew Tenten didn't yet know about the fox sealed within him.

"Damn thing would be," Tsunade agreed with a snort. "I know where I've seen this technique before, too. Jiraiya does it with his toads. I'm surprised I didn't think of it sooner."

"I just want to go home," Isaribi murmured quietly. Tenten was right, this was no longer fun and she was beginning to realize just how out of her depth she was traveling with this group of outcast ninjas.

Ahead of the group, Naruto tripped over something and nearly face-planted, but a quick save by Shizune saved him the humiliation. "That was a close one," the boy sighed, looking down to see what he'd tripped over. Eyes widening, he backed away from the armored, mummified remains of a soldier that had either died leaning against the wall or had been dragged there by a comrade.

"Relax, it's just a dead body," Anko grumbled, grabbing the boy's shoulder as he backed into her chest, his head smashing painfully against her breasts, causing her to grunt in discomfort. "Looks like it's been down here a while."

"It's different from the Kubisaki Army's armor," Hinata pointed out softly.

"It could be from the enemy's side," Tenten nodded.

Pointing down the hall, Shizune started forward again. "There are more over here. It's a different kind of armor."

Taking a closer look, Hinata nodded. "It's like the Kubisaki armor."

The group made their way further down the hall, Anko pushing Naruto ahead of her to keep him moving along with the group. "Geeze, you're this scared of a few dead bodies and a spooky old castle that's really a summon?"

Naruto growled. "Shut up! I can't help it," he grumbled. At the end of the hallway, the group stopped as they found a recessed section of the wall, softly lighted by some unknown source. "That's the same armor as the picture," the blond pointed out, Hinata nodding her agreement.

"Kubisaki Kouza himself, probably," Tsunade said, leaning closer to the body for a better look. She quickly backed away when smoke began to rise from below the body. "It's dissolving. Looks like stomach acid. I think it's time we got out of here," she said, turning to regard one of the walls and ignoring Naruto's complaints of the fumes stinking. Pulling back her fist, she slammed it into the wall, causing the whole castle to shake. The response was immediate, as seemingly from everywhere a deep groan reverberated and the walls, floor, and ceiling lost their stone disguise, becoming flesh before their eyes. "Hinata, find us an exit."

Nodding the girl expanded her vision. "There's..." a woman's scream from down the hall cut her off. "Never mind," she sighed as the group followed the sound of the scream.

Rounding a corner, they came to a halt seeing several people stuck to the walls, bits of wall-flesh holding them in place or pulling them in deeper. And there, being drawn into the wall, was the woman they'd heard scream—and who they had been dispatched to rescue. "Please, save me," she whimpered, one hand stretching out towards the group as the wall pulled her in deeper.

**Soup,** the fox snickered, drawing a grimace from the blond boy.

"We're here to save you," Tsunade said, stepping forward to take the hand of the Lady from Honey Country. Giving the woman's arm a tug, she frowned. "Try the others."

The group scattered, attempting to pry the other members of the dignitary's party from the wall, with little success. "If I pull any harder, I'm afraid I'll hurt them," Shizune told her sensei, getting a nod from the blond woman.

"Kunai don't do any good," Tenten announced from where she'd been trying to cut the only other woman with the Lady free.

"We need another plan," Tsunade mused.

"It's a summon, we could just kill it," Anko suggested.

Blinking, Tsunade turned towards Hinata again. "Where's the exit?"

"We'll have to go up through the ceiling," the shorter girl answered.

Grinning, Tsunade turned towards the younger blond. "Naruto, make us a hole."

Grinning, the boy brought his fingers together into the sign for kage bunshin. A moment later, he and his clone had spun up a rasengan and the clone propelled its creator towards the ceiling, where the boy smashed the ball of chakra into the flesh there, tearing open a gap large enough to jump through. He was caught by the arm on the way back down by Tsunade, in the middle of her own leap up as the others followed, leaving the Lady and her retinue for the moment. The floor sealed again quickly, nearly trapping Tenten and Isaribi.

From all around them, they heard the same voice they'd heard before. _**"I am Shiromari. Following Kouza-sama's orders, I will eat everyone inside the castle."**_

In front of the group, the walls began spewing a yellowish fluid, which hissed as it quickly spread across the floor. Seeing his sandals start to smoke when the fluid touched them, Naruto jumped and flipped midair, sticking his feet to the ceiling, only to have the ceiling rumble and wriggle about underfoot, negating his chakra and sending the boy towards the floor. "Shit!"

The others were having similar problems. Any surface they landed on either attempted to throw them off or started spewing acid. Across the room, the doors to the dining room and the room across from it opened, huge fleshy tentacles quickly extending outward in an attempt to grab the dodging ninjas. Dodging yet another tentacle, Anko grimaced. "It's like a bad hentai! What do we have to do to get out of this guy's stomach?"

"If he was summoned, there should be a contract somewhere," Tsunade answered, swatting away the tentacles attempting to grab her. "Get that and we should be able to leave."

Nodding to the unseen request, Hinata once more expanded her sight while the others covered her, quickly scanning through what she could see of the castle/summon. Flinching slightly at a nearby explosion from exploding tags tossed be Naruto and Tenten, Hinata found her target. "Above us!" the normally soft-spoken girl yelled.

"Let's go get it," Naruto called, attaching several explosive notes to a kunai and flinging it at the source of the tentacles. "We'll cover you."

Nodding, Hinata took off at a dead run up the stairs, flanked on either side of Anko and Shizune, Isaribi and Tenten behind her, Tsunade and Naruto bringing up the rear as they cut down, smashed, or otherwise felled the fleshy appendages attempting to slow their progress. Coming up the final flight of stairs, the group made it to a small room with a small table sitting in its center, a large scroll atop it. "There it is!" Hinata called out, drawing the attention of those who had yet to make it up the stairs.

"Destroy it!" Anko yelled, fighting off more fleshy appendages as, around then, the summon laughed.

Running up to the scroll, Naruto picked it up and unrolled it. Upon the scroll were ten signatures and palm prints, all in blood, and the rest of the spaces were blank. Along the top and bottom was a spiral pattern and what looked to be a lizard of some sort. Pulling out a kunai and reaching for an exploding tag to wrap into the scroll, Naruto paused as a thought occurred, seeing that the last signature was Kubisaki Kouza himself. Grinning, he sliced open a good sized cut along his left arm and began to scrawl his name. Seeing this, Tsunade had to resist the impulse to smack the boy. "What are you doing?! This thing's going to kill us and you're trying to get a new contract!"

"Quiet!" Naruto yelled back, smearing what blood remained from his now-healed cut onto his hand and pressing his palm below his signature, along with an offering of chakra. the place on the scroll where he'd signed glowed for a moment before flashing and going back to normal, the boy's signature and print apparently accepted. "HEY YOU!" he yelled, causing the group at large to sweat-drop. "Cut it out! Your old master's dead, along with everyone else on the scroll except me. I'm the boss now, and I say knock it off!"

Mid-lunge, the tentacles paused, then retreated into the walls, which also stopped dripping acid. _**"It will be as you command."**_

The group slowly relaxed as Naruto rolled the scroll back up and pulled out a length of wire, having a clone use it to tie the scroll to his belt at the back of his pants. "See, we didn't have to destroy it after all," the boy grinned. "Hey, what was your name again? Oh, yeah, Shiromari, spit out the people you've got down there in the basement and let us out. Then you can go home."

_**"Home?"**_ the voice questioned around them. _**"I may leave this place?"**_

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I think you deserve a break after fifty years of service."

After making their way back downstairs—unmolested this time—the group found the gathering from Honey Country sprawled out across the floor. Creating several clones, Naruto directed them to move the group outside while Team Hokage followed. Grinning, the boy once more tossed his hands behind his head and took one last look around the inside of the castle/summon. "Don't worry, I won't summon you again," he said quietly. Movement from the far end of the room drew his attention to a figure slowly emerging from one of the doorways. The figure, slightly glowing with chakra and bearing a striking resemblance to the Kubisaki Lord nodded towards the blond before disappearing.

Once they were outside, the castle itself vanished in a swirl of chakra and smoke, leaving only the foundation behind. "Can we please go home now?" Isaribi questioned, her voice subdued and quiet.

The group gave a collective start as, with a swirl of smoke, the castle reappeared. "What now?" Anko groaned.

A hacking sound, like someone clearing something nasty from the back of their throat, rolled over the area around the castle for a moment before the front doors opened and a figure was hurled out with a sound distinctly reminiscent of someone spitting out the nasty thing in question. The castle disappeared again as the figure came to a sticky, messy, slime-covered landing before the group and rolled to a stop. "Shit, it's Danzou's Root spy," Tsunade growled, pulling a kunai out and approaching the downed spy.

Groaning weakly, the spy in question quickly pulled out a scroll and ran his bloody thumb across it, after biting a gash in said digit. A moment later, what looked like a large cat picked the spy up by the collar, flung him over its shoulder, and took off at speed for the tree-line. "Go after him!" Anko yelled, starting to seal for her own summoning.

Naruto shook his head. "Why bother? Looks like he's had it worse than us."

Seeing that her target had gotten away and she would likely not catch up, Anko grumbled and stopped sealing. "Kid, one of these days you're going to have to learn not to leave any survivors unless you know you can keep them somewhere where they won't come back to stick a knife in you later."

"What do you mean?"

Tsunade sighed, going to check up on the Honey Country delegation. "She means that you're going to have to grow up. We're ninja, we get paid to kill people. It's part of the job description. You don't have to like it, but the less people you leave alive the better."

"That's pretty cold, especially coming from you," Naruto grumbled, sitting down in the grass near Hinata.

"Naruto-kun," Shizune said quietly, drawing the boy's attention. "That was rude. And cold or not, it is a fact of life. If you decide to spare an enemy's life, he or she could come back even as soon as the next day and kill you and take from you everything you hold dear. And an enemy that has seen your techniques and survived is an enemy better prepared to fight you the next time. Also, they will usually wind up spreading that information to any allies they have, so instead of just one enemy who knows what to expect from you, every enemy you face from then on may know everything they need to end a fight quickly and in their favor."

"It just doesn't seem fair—"

"Fair?" Anko asked, eyes narrowing. "Fair!? Do you think any concept of 'fair' or 'unfair' will keep a jonin from killing you with a smile on his face? Life isn't fair kid, get over it. Especially the life of a shinobi. Even the word 'shinobi' has its roots in death. Shi no bi: beauty in death." Taking a moment to make sure he was listening, she continued since the other kunoichi were obviously willing to let her, if they hadn't said something by now. The boy needed to hear this and she knew that despite how much they wanted to preserve his innocence on the matter, they couldn't and still live—especially now.

"Sandaime once said—and I'm probably going to horribly mangle this, but—the life of a ninja should be like fireworks: a slow ascent followed by an unrivaled explosion of beauty at its peak. We're not meant to live long lives and stupid ideas like that cut your life expectancy—and that of everyone around you—down to virtually nil. We do not live in some fairy-tale world where everything in our lives can be right and proper and just-fucking-_so_, so long as we will it so. Some will argue to the contrary, but the truth of the matter is that you stopped being a child the moment you accepted your hitai-ate, regardless of age. We are expected to take on missions, kill, and potentially die in the service of Daimyo and Kage. And you're in way too deep to back out now, so you'd best get your head on straight blondie. There are some cold realities you're going to have to face and you won't be able to do it fucking around and acting like a damn kid. Hate to break it to you, but the majority of Konoha hates your guts and would just as soon slit your throat as to give you the time of day. Once you get older—_if_ you get older—the other villages, especially Iwa, are going to start noticing things and you're going to catch hell from them. And Akatsuki is coming for you, whether you're ready for them or not—preferably not, for their part. Uchiha Itachi is about the only one of those damn jutsu thieves I actually respected, and I know damn well he's not going to be worried about whether it's fair or not that two S-ranked missing-nin get to tag-team one dumb chuunin 'cause their boss told them to."

Sensing a lull in Anko's rant, Tsunade cleared her throat. "I've healed what I can. We'll stay here for the night. I'll take first watch, Anko next, then Shizune, then Naruto. We'll leave at sunup, once the Honey Country delegation wake up and confirm they can carry on by themselves."

The group was silent as they ate a quick supper and bedded down for the night. Naruto didn't get to sleep until well after the second watch started, his mind was buzzing with the things Anko had said as his situation was finally starting to set in as he realized that without Konoha to hide behind—even if he didn't really want to hide—he was an easy target for Akatsuki. And he realized that Anko was right—if he did somehow manage to fend off Itachi and Kisame and second time, those two would only come back stronger, this time with Itachi knowing exactly what to expect. Going against his natural inclination to simply ignore anything that forced him to think about his lot in life, he stayed up late into the night pondering just what would have to be done if he were to survive to see his next birthday, or the one after that.

The voice in the back of his head spoke again, softly, just as the boy was finally drifting off to sleep. **I will **_**not**_** be made into that man's slave again. If that means remaining your prisoner for the moment, so be it, but if you do not do something about our current situation then I will.**

When Shizune woke him for his shift, Naruto yawned and looked around blearily. All told, he'd probably gotten about four hours of sleep. Quickly forcing himself into coming fully awake, Naruto quickly set about sending clones out to gather firewood and once they got back, lit a small fire for the group to cook breakfast on later. For the moment, the blond simply sat and attempted to warm himself by the fire, letting his clones keep watch. While it wasn't very cold, it was approaching winter and it _was_ cold enough to make his breath fog in the morning air. Swiftly growing bored, Naruto quietly went about attempting to use his new summoning contract, though doing so quietly as to not wake the rest of his team.

That was how Tenten found the blond when she roused slowly from slumber, disturbed by quiet voices. Cracking her eye open, she turned her head towards their source to see her blond teammate talking to what looked like a foot-long bright-green lizard. Shrugging, she yawned and stretched, nearly smirking as she saw that doing so had inadvertently drawn the boy's eyes to her chest for a moment. "Morning," she mumbled out, rubbing at her eyes.

Naruto waved a greeting before dismissing the lizard. "Should we wake the others?"

Tenten shook her head. "Not yet, but soon," she answered, getting a nod from the blond. After several minutes of silence, Tenten finally asked, "So what's an Akatsuki?"

Frowning, Naruto pondered the question before answering slowly. "A group of S-ranked missing-nin."

"What do they want with you?"

"I don't know," the blond said, evading the question without outright lying. After all, he knew they wanted Kyuubi, just not what they wanted the fox for aside from some vague world-domination scheme.

Seeing that he wasn't willing to talk about it, Tenten nodded. "It's ok if you don't want to say. They're your secrets, not mine. I won't push you to tell me something I don't really deserve to know," she said quietly, getting a look of thanks from the boy. After a moment, she asked, "So, what'd the lizard say? Is that what that new scroll summons? And I noticed you don't have the scroll any more."

Naruto nodded. "I gave it to one of them to hold on to for me. I'm trying to figure out where they fit in with the other contracts we have. For the most part, they're like toads but without most of the major weaknesses the toads have. They can operate in a slightly wider range or areas, since their skin is dry for the most part as opposed to moist like a toad—most of them won't dry out if we ever go to Suna and I have to summon one, and there are even special kinds that thrive in desert climates. They're fast, smart, and lots of them can do stuff like Shiromari or like some of the toads. I think there are even a couple that live in the sea, but they didn't talk much about those. About the only problem I can see with using them is that most of them walk on all fours, which doesn't really leave a free hand or two to work with. That, and they hate the cold, but then the only contracts we've got with anything that can survive cold at the moment are dogs and monkeys."

"Do you know what species the contract covers?" Tenten asked out of curiosity.

Naruto shrugged. "Not really. 'Walks on four legs, scaly, and cold blooded,' are about the only requirements I think, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't cover stuff like crocodiles or alligators, and I know it doesn't cover all reptiles."

"So anything that vaguely falls under the definition of 'lizard' just about?" Tenten asked, getting a nod in answer. "Chameleons?" she asked. Grinning, the blond pointed towards a patch of ground near her sleeping bag where a form she had previously been unaware of quickly became visible. "That... is so cool. Wish we had a jutsu that did that."

Naruto shrugged. "Ero-sennin does, but he mostly uses it to peep on girls in the bath."

"And you don't know it?" Tenten asked, like nearly everyone else knowing that the old pervert favored the boy and had nearly taken him on as an apprentice before all the mess with the council started.

Naruto shook his head. "No. Why would I want to? I don't peep on girls," the blond denied quickly.

Tenten rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but I'm pretty sure it could be used for more than being perverted," she suggested. _'Besides, it's not like a girl doesn't appreciate a little look every now and then, just so long as you're not too obvious about it,'_ she thought.

"There is another way," a voice pointed out from atop the blond's knee, nearly startling Tenten as she hadn't seen or heard the chameleon move before it had reappeared again.

"How's that?" the boy asked.

The small lizard seemed to grin. "I'll tell you, but it's going to cost you."

"What's your price?"

"We like bugs," the reptile seemed to shrug. "If you promise to get me some good ones, I'll tell you."

Thinking for a minute, Naruto glanced at Tenten—specifically her hitai-ate—before grinning in a way that the girl knew did not bode well for someone. "I think I might know somewhere to get some good ones, but you'd have to promise not to eat them all." Seeing the lizard nod, the blond nodded in return. "I'll summon you when we get close and point you in the right direction, but you'll have to find them yourself. So, what's this 'other way?'"

"We shed," it said simply, turning its head around to pull off a large chunk of dead outer skin before offering it to Naruto. "The larger of our kind shed thicker skins," it hinted.

Looking at the small patch of skin, Naruto scrunched up his face in thought for a moment before channeling a bit of chakra into it. The skin between his fingers disappeared, leaving behind only a small distortion, though he could still feel it there. The blond grinned. "Awesome. And I just happen to know a tailor that might be able to do something with this. Thanks little guy," he said before dismissing the lizard. Turning towards Tenten, who had a look on her face similar to the one she'd had when she first spotted the Raijin—which Naruto would, in later years come to recognize as lust—the blond grinned. "Don't tell the others. I want this to be a surprise."

Tenten nodded. "I don't think you realize how valuable that stuff is," she said slowly. "But as long as you're offering me some, sure."

"How valuable is it?" Naruto asked, now honestly curious.

Tenten bit her lip, the look still on her face as her right hand seemed to sporadically twitch oddly. "Well, I'm assuming that particular summoning scroll is pretty rare, otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation. One roll of that stuff could change ninja warfare forever. Enough to make a cloak for a single person would create a ninja who could conceivably sneak into any village—and since we already _do_ infiltration missions on a regular basis, it would only improve the odds of not getting caught. Given to someone who could control their internal chakra flow, you could assassinate any Kage you felt like killing. Just walk right up to them and drag a sword across their throat. Or you could sit outside the village walls in a tree with a bow and arrow and wait until your target got close and snipe from a range. Anybody who sees us... I mean you, using that stuff is going to want it pretty bad. Having an entire group of ninja outfitted with it? Every village would demand your services... that, or send everyone they had out to kill you and steal it, or kidnap you and learn how you make it."

"So, the less people that know about this, the better," Naruto surmised, drawing a nod from the girl. "And if they knew where to get it, they'd be all over it."

"Not necessarily," Tenten shook her head. "You may not have realized it, but a lot of ninja tend to focus on one thing and have problems grasping the bigger picture. It's like they traded common sense for cool jutsu at birth. In this case, if you had a scroll that let you summon creatures that could make themselves nearly invisible, most ninja wouldn't connect the fact that lizards shed and that the leftover skin could potentially still work, if charged with chakra. Why would they want to anyway? Most would think that they've got something great—an invisible summon—and leave it at that. And that would work for some things—for instance if you hid in its mouth—but it isn't as versatile as the stuff itself. And since it's not a jutsu, it can't be canceled. And I _know_ I didn't sense that thing, so it must not take much chakra to produce the effect, which means it's undetectable at long range. The only thing you'd really have to worry about is someone like an Inuzuka, who could smell you coming."

"So if most ninja are stuck looking at one thing only, what about you?"

Tenten's grin was lecherous. "Me? I'm a very _versatile_ girl. Sure, I don't know much besides weapons at the moment, but I'm willing to learn."

Their conversation was cut short as, near them, Anko began to show signs of waking up. Soon thereafter, the rest of the group was awake and Tsunade took the time to wake the Honey Country group before checking them over again. Pronouncing them fit to travel, the two groups shared a small breakfast and the story of the events leading up to their arrival and subsequent escape from the castle/summon.

When the sun cleared the tree-tops, the two groups said their fare-wells and parted ways, the Lady of Honey Country promising to put in a good word with her husband for their group. Team Hokage hiked back down the same path they'd taken the night before into town, letting the village's mayor know they'd resolved the issue but not going into specifics and collecting the reward. When the group got out of sight of the town, Naruto summoned a group of three toads. The girls' eyes were drawn to the lizard the boy summoned next: smaller and leaner than the toads, but with about as much body mass as a horse. The vibrant green colored lizard, which said that it was of a type called Anole when asked, allowed the blond to mount its back before jumping into the nearest tree and taking off ahead of the toads. One would think having nearly a ton of chakra-driven reptile leaping from tree to tree would be a bad idea—namely because the limbs wouldn't be able the bear the weight—but that didn't seem to register to either the blond or the lizard. The kunoichi followed on the toads, catching up on open terrain but losing distance again when the trees were close enough for the anole to tree-jump.

The group camped for the night and set out again the next morning, making it back to Otafuku Gai shortly after noon. Dismissing the summons outside of sight of the town, the group made their way towards their home to stop in and check on things before they would divide the loot from the mission and go into town. Still a little wobbly from his second prolonged ride on an anole, Naruto had to be supported for half the distance into town between Shizune and Anko before they decided he could walk on his own again, which dissuaded most of the girls from wanting to try riding one of the new summons.

Nearing their home, the group came to a halt when Tsunade held up her fist ordering a stop. A moment later, several figures dropped from the trees above, each sporting the white or beige uniform of the Branch Hyuuga, Byakugan eyes active. Neji stepped to the front of the group, his body tense and ready for battle, but careful to hold his posture to something less threatening. Seeing his cousin, Neji ignored the others to speak directly to her, where she was almost hiding behind the orange-and-black clad blond. "Hiashi-sama has ordered us to bring you home."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Not particularly happy with the first part of this chapter either, but I do feel good about the last three quarters or so that actually got written all at once. The first four or so paragraphs sat in my folder and just sort of got glared at for the past two weeks (it's still Monday the 18th, about two minutes to Tuesday, and I started writing again about one, to give you some idea of how fast I can actually write when the mood hits) until today, when I actually got tired of looking at it and watched the episode. Sorry if it follows too closely in places, but it turned out that this chapter hated me. Again, I've been glaring at the first four paragraphs since I posted chapter nine. I decided to post this early, so if it's a little rough I apologize.

I've decided what I'm going to include in the lizard summoning contract. Wiki for 'Lizard' and scroll down to classification. Nearly everything on that list—yes, I know it's a huge list—save for legless lizards. Yes, I also know 'dog' is a huge list that does not include 'wolf,' 'fox,' or other species of canine or mammal just as 'cat' could apply to simply all domestic species or to all domestic species along with all wild species. The list is about the same size as the lists for 'toad' or 'snake,' really, but you don't see people summon specific types/families of the animals in question mostly, just specific members of that group—Gamabunta and Manda, large toads like the food-cart-destroyer or larger odd snakes like the three headed one. I'm going to fix that crap here, especially with the lizard summoning scroll, and summon certain species for certain situations/conditions such as terrain, climate, weather, etc.

I've got one more big canon-specific plotline planned (Snow, if you haven't guessed) and after that, it's to mostly-original stuff unless I decide to randomly add in something from filler. Plans are pretty vague after the Snow arc, actually, but that could be good or bad. It's good because I get to make crap up, it's bad because I _have_ to make crap up and step away from pre-established plot-arcs for a while. Got one more semi-pre-established arc I want to put either between here and Snow or immediately after. You may or may not hate me for it, but personally, I'm feeling pretty good about the possibilities—which is what drew me to the challenge in the first place, the possibilities presented, so I don't particularly care if it annoys someone so long as I think it comes out nicely.

On that note—the annoyed one, that is—I'd like to thank a reviewer for my first real flame since posting this. I'd like to thank CatOnFire for pointing out something that I'm sure others have thought, but not pointed out in quite the same way. No, I'm not being sarcastic. This story does look and feel a lot like Chunin Exam Day in a different setting (end the resets, sub in the group as they are in that story now, adjust story to compensate for changes wrought because of the resets, and it would probably make for a decent sequel idea—though I would leave that up to PL, as I'd rather not mess around too much in his universe for fear of breaking something), even to _me_, though it's not entirely intentional. If that pisses you off CoF (should you actually have bothered to stick around for one more chapter and made it this far) you should read the challenge and look at the options offered and the pre-reqs: Kitsune-clan bloodline available (and if I use it, it will be called the Kitsune Clan since it's not my idea and it already has a name), harem offered but NaruHina pre-req (and if I do both harem and Kitsune-clan, you can bet your ass it's spreading to the entire clan since it wasn't asked for for Hinata alone, but rather Hinata if I use it at all_), _strong!Naruto as a requisite and not an option. If you want to get technical about it, lots of stories resemble each other because no idea is entirely original, especially when you get down to specifics. How many Naruto fanfics have you read with strong!Naruto? How about strong!Naruto with a harem? That one seems to happen a lot, since the first part attracts the second. How about furry!Naruto? Furry!Naruto is usually strong!Naruto. Or I can get more specific. How many fics have you seen with someone using some type of 'gravity/weight/training seal?' Can you even place who used the idea first? Is an author not allowed to use such a thing, seeing that they know it belongs to another author as it's obviously not canon, yet is unable to place the original author? In that case, who came up with furry!Naruto first? Sorry, no more Kitsune-clan bloodline in Chunin Exam Day if you want to bitch about that. Strong!Naruto? You eliminate ninety percent of fancition on the Naruto section including Chunin Exam Day. Timetraveler!Naruto? You eliminate the rest of the good stuff. Naruto-with-a-harem? Again, no more Kitsune-clan in Chunin Exam Day. I rest my case. To anyone else that shares the sentiment: stop reading now, unless you're desperate for entertainment, and if you stick around for that reason then you've no right to complain about it unless you plan to go out and flame every single other author out there. Why not start small and work your way up, hmm? Start on the stuff with under 50k words and leave the somewhat-serious authors alone. (Not that having a small word count means an author isn't serious about something, more that larger things seem to have somewhat more effort put into them—even if they do suck, and I can name more than a few over 100k that suck pretty hard but apparently people disagree.)

One final note: Kage and Sannin Tsunade may be, the woman is also a lush, a gambler, and impulsive as hell—especially at this stage in the story, since it's not even been six months since she took the position. She's only human. If she doesn't seem very Kage-like, it's because she isn't. She acts it occasionally (and when she does, she does it very well), but she also acts like a big kid at times—and that's canon. I figure it would take more than six months to break a lifetime of bad habits, and Team Hokage gets to deal with a Tsunade at her most impulsive (especially around Naruto) and going through alcohol and gambling withdrawal. At the moment, Jiraiya seems like a better Hokage for one reason and one reason only, which will be elaborated upon later: he doesn't give a shit. He doesn't care what the village or the council think, he's the Hokage—the supreme leader of a village of mostly soldiers in a pseudo-military command structure—and goddamnit his orders will be carried out or it's someone's ass. Which, personally, is what I think every Hokage should have done once Konoha got settled enough that they had a pretty good idea people weren't going to just jump ship. Not rule with an iron fist like what I imagine Kumo or Iwa to be, but not kowtowing to a group of ex-ninja, clan heads, and _civilians_ either.

Sorry about the long Author's Notes/Rants nearly doubling the word count.


	12. Just Hinata

**The Missing Hokage**

**12: Just Hinata**

* * *

The sound of flesh meeting flesh echoed across the small clearing, plainly audible to everyone present. Hyuuga Neji blinked, one hand twitching as though it wanted to reach up and rub the red mark left by the unexpected blow. While the boy had fully expected to be attacked, it had come from perhaps the most unexpected source. Hinata had stepped quickly around the blond boy that had unconsciously eased in front of her, her right hand lashing out at her cousin and connecting with his cheek in a vicious slap. Looking down into his shorter cousin's face, what he found there scared the prodigy for just a moment. His normally calm, passive, shy cousin was sending him a look that, could looks alone kill, would have left nothing behind. "Neji-niisan, go home," she ordered quietly, though the boy could hear the thinly veiled threat in her voice.

"I can not."

Drawing her hand back again, she brought it around to slap her cousin once more. Almost rolling his eyes, Neji negligently brought his hand up to block the blow. He had been caught off guard and he supposed subconsciously he was willing to let her get away with the first blow since the girl had never lashed out at _anyone_ in anger in her short life, let alone her 'niisan.' The so-called genius paid dearly for his negligence. Neji gasped in pain when the blow snapped both the bones of his forearm like twigs, brushed his now-broken arm aside like it wasn't even there, and collided with the side of his face with enough force to send the Hyuuga boy sprawling to the ground and straight into unconsciousness. Behind her, Team Hokage looked on in silence and more than a little awe at the display of violence from the least expected person in their group. Nearly every member of Team Hokage had expected Naruto, Tsunade, or Anko to attack first and with little-to-no warning. But for Hinata to do so, and with almost no hesitation? She had not waited for Tsunade or one of the older kunoichi to attempt to handle the situation, she had not asked them to leave, she hadn't argued or even questioned why her father wanted her to return—she already knew what he had in mind. She had seemingly taken a page from Naruto's book and acted on an impulse.

Turning her attention away from her downed cousin, she regarded the other Hyuuga sent to retrieve her. "This the only order I will ever give you as the Hyuuga heir: leave, now. Take Neji and return to Konoha. If they demand you explain your failure, you can tell them I used the seal on you. Just go, please."

The Hyuuga had known they were on what amounted to a suicide mission when they had left Konoha. With Tsunade present, the only chance of success they would have had would be to attack during the night and either try to abduct the missing heir quietly or try to distract a Sannin and three apprentices to Sannin—Tsunade's first apprentice Shizune, Orochimaru's ex-apprentice Anko, and Naruto, who was the unconfirmed apprentice to Jiraiya—long enough to complete their mission. They had assumed that neither Hinata nor Naruto had been apprenticed to Tsunade long enough to know anything of worth. Neji had discarded the idea, for two reasons: neither option would work and both had felt dishonorable even despite his dislike of the Hyuuga Main House and his younger cousin in particular.

Instead, the Hyuuga prodigy had opted to simply approach them during the day, hopefully lowering the possibility of being attacked for simply making the request. Many of the Branch Hyuuga also assumed that Neji had been perfectly willing to write this mission off as a failure and beg off on the excuse that they had been up against overwhelming odds and accept whatever punishment the Hyuuga Elders handed out, so long as the group sent suffered no casualties as a result of the Elders' collective stupidity. Swiftly looking to each other for confirmation, the Branch Hyuuga bowed as one before a pair of them picked up Neji between them and the group swiftly took to the trees, as the Naruto clones that had appeared around them the moment they'd shown up dispersed to clear a path. When they were out of sight, Anko asked, "If you could have ended the whole thing by using the seal, why didn't you?"

Hinata took a deep breath to steady herself, attempting to slow her suddenly racing heartbeat. For just a moment, facing the prospect of being taken away from what she was quickly coming to view as her family, she had been everything her father had ever wanted in an heir—strong, decisive, ruthless... and it scared her. She turned back towards the group and smiled softly, shoving those feelings to the far corners of her mind to deal with later. "I can't."

"Why not?" Naruto asked, putting away the Raijin, which he'd slipped off his belt and into his hand just before Hinata had stepped around him—much to Tenten's disappointment as she'd wanted to see the legendary blade in action. The events with Neji had put her into an awkward position, having to choose between coming to the defense of the only female friend she had at the moment or standing aside so her team mate and fellow Konoha ninja could take the friend in question back home where—though they did not say it outright—she would undoubtedly be placed under the Caged Bird seal.

"I don't know how to activate the seal. Unlike my sister, I never wanted to learn," she said simply before turning back towards the path to their home. "Can we go home now?" she asked, not waiting for an answer before taking off along the path to their temporary base-op. for Fire Country.

The group shook themselves out of their collective stupor at seeing the meekest of their bunch suddenly grow a spine and hurried to follow. Trading a look with her first apprentice, Tsunade grinned. "So," she said, dragging out the 'o,' "you've mastered the strength enhancing technique?"

Ahead of the sannin and beside Naruto, Hinata shook her head. "I wouldn't say mastered. I can get it to work about half the time though, but only at lower strengths. If I'd been able to do it like you could, that would have torn his head off," she answered simply.

Beside her, Naruto grinned. "Maybe, but it was still a pretty decent payback for the chuunin exams. That was awesome, Hinata-chan," he praised the girl, drawing a blush from her, before adding quietly, "Kind of scary though. Warn me if I ever make you that mad, ok?" he asked, getting another blush and a nod.

As they approached the building and the group discussed spending the rest of the day just relaxing before picking up with training the next day until they had to meet their next clients, Anko took a breath before broaching the subject she'd been wanting to bring up for the past day of travel. "Well, before we decide to knock off for the day, there's something else we need to do." Seeing she had the group's attention, she sent Tsunade a mildly annoyed glare for not bringing it up earlier. "Mission debriefing and review."

"What?" Naruto asked, narrowing his eyes at the kunoichi. "Come on, we were all there, so that'd be a waste of time."

Smacking the back of the blond's head, she shook her head. "You're wrong, brat. When you're on a team, you usually review any mission at least twice. Once with your team and once with your superiors. The whole point is to find things you could have done better or places you could do better next time."

On the opposite side of Tsunade from Anko, Shizune nodded. "Anko is right, it needs to be done," she said, glancing up towards her mentor and sometimes-ward, who wore an expression identical to the smaller blond.

"Fine," the sannin grumbled. "I thought I'd escaped paperwork when we left Konoha," she mumbled just loud enough for Shizune and Anko to hear, earning grins from both the kunoichi, though Shizune's had a visible touch of exasperation.

The group kicked off their sandals as they made their way inside their current home, heading towards a large back room they'd earlier decided was to be used for meetings of the group. Taking seats on the tatami mats on the floor in a loose circle, the group looked towards Anko since she had brought up the subject of a mission review. Rolling her eyes, the woman sighed. "Fine, I'll do it. To put it simply, we sucked out there."

"What do you mean 'we sucked?' I thought we did pretty good. We completed the mission and we got a new contract—a really good one too—so what's the problem?" Naruto asked, not yet willing to discuss the idea still rolling around in his head.

Resisting the urge to throw something at the blond, Anko rolled her eyes. "Let's start from the beginning. Our first screw-up was not checking the place for genjutsu. Sure, we have Hinata-chan, but we can't always rely on her eyes for everything. Didn't check for seals either. We just ran a standard sweep for activity, which while not wrong, was only the least that we should have done. And we weren't nearly as thorough at that as we would have been if we'd actually seen the place as a threat." Seeing Shizune nod in agreement, she continued. "When you had Hinata scan the place and she said it was full of chakra, you should have had us check for seals," she said, looking towards Tsunade.

The sannin in question had the decency to look embarrassed. "It... kind of slipped my mind. In all the time Shizune and I traveled, we usually didn't even both setting watch at night..."

"I figured as much," Anko snorted, a mumble that sounded to Naruto and Tsunade like a crack about 'blonds' whispered under her breath. "And if checking for seals and genjutsu didn't turn up anything, then the sheer size of the place and the fact that it was laced with chakra should have been a big damn clue it was probably a summon. How soon did you figure it out blondie?"

Naruto shrugged. "I didn't know for sure until it started screwing with us."

"But you suspected," Anko pressed, getting a nod from both the boy and the sannin. "Next time, don't ignore your gut instinct. If you think something's off, _say_ something. Especially if it looks like no one else is thinking the same thing. Our next big screw up was just dismissing that thing toying with us. I KNEW that wasn't the wind," she said, shooting a glare at Tsunade. "You shrugged it off because the _civilian_ mentioned ghosts, didn't you?" she asked, getting a hesitant nod. "And if she hadn't been there?"

Tsunade shrugged. "I'd have checked the doors," she grumbled, annoyed at being chastised like some freshly-instated chuunin. Resisting the urge to sigh, she decided it was far past time for her to start taking this seriously instead of screwing around like she had for the majority of her and Shizune's 'vacation' from Konoha for all those years.

Anko nodded. "Probably our biggest fuck up was a lack of communication. I know radios are pretty rare, but we need to either find some or come up with a way to communicate without them. I'd have had us getting the hell out of dodge when I realized that it wasn't snake I was smelling, but the thing jumped us in the basement before I could say anything."

"We all worked well together once we realized our situation," Shizune supplied, getting a shrug from Anko.

"It could have gone better. Everything was going good until blondie decided to ignore my orders and sign the stupid thing instead of destroying it. What would you have done if it ignored you? Or if the scroll rejected you? You'd have wasted precious time—possibly even getting yourself killed in the process if the scroll had been sealed to kill anyone not of the original owner's bloodline—and we probably wouldn't be having this conversation, because you wanted to try things your way instead of the way that would work for sure." Shaking her head, at the boy's stubborn look, Anko brought up the part she'd been waiting to get to. "And then there's Danzou's little toy. We had him and we let him go, or as good as did so. I'm not going to try to toss around blame for that particular fiasco, because we're all to blame. None of us really _tried_ to stop him, so we're all equally to blame."

"We were all kind of wiped out at that point," Naruto argued.

"Not enough that we couldn't have stopped him with a concerted group effort. Anyway, that's beside the point. There are any number of things we could have done to kill or capture that little fucker, but we let him go. That's inexcusable." Looking around at the group, she said, "If we're going to survive out here, this shit has to stop here and now. To hell with letting people like him spy on us for fear of drawing Konoha or someone else down on us. We're going to have to start killing every spy, assassin, or threat we become aware of until we get the message across that we aren't going to stand for that crap. Anyone the villages send against us—if they're hostile, they need to die."

After a moment of silence, Tsunade nodded. "Agreed. We can't give the impression we're an easy target."

"Which brings up another problem," Anko continued. "Shizune said we worked well together, but it wasn't good enough. We're going to have to start doing team-building crap if we plan to function as a unit."

Nodding, Shizune pulled out a note-pad and pen. "I'll add it to the schedule. Clones or originals?" she asked, as at that point everyone in the group could produce at least one clone.

"Original bodies. We can work it into taijutsu training," Tsunade supplied.

"Anyone got anything else to add?" Anko asked. Seeing no takers, she stood. "Let's hit the town," she grinned, glancing between Tsunade and Naruto, throwing off her previous bad mood like most people changed out of dirty clothes.

"Wait, I... I have something to add," Isaribi spoke up from where she'd been sitting on the other side of Tenten from Hinata. Seeing she had their attention, she continued. "I almost screwed things up for us back there and I'm sorry. Anko is right, I'm a civilian. I shouldn't be tagging along on missions or I'll just wind up getting myself captured or killed, or worse, one of you. I'm just not cut out to be a ninja. So I think... if you don't mind, I think I'll stay here. You've given me a chance at making a new life for myself away from the people who feared me, so I should be able to pick up a decent job and a place to stay soon, somehow."

Looking at the group for a moment, Tsunade said, "You're still a part of this group. We aren't going to kick you out just because you aren't following along on missions. I'll make you a deal. If you agree to keep you place clean, you can stay here for as long as you like, rent free." Seeing the girl nod eagerly, Tsunade smiled. "Besides, it's probably best if you stay here anyway. I can't work on finding a cure if I can't find you."

"About that," the girl started, biting her lip for a moment before continuing. "I don't want to be a ninja, but is it ok if I still learn medical jutsu?"

Looking to her mentor for a moment, Shizune answered. "Yes. I think we'd be willing to teach anyone who asked at least the basics. The world could use more people with medical training," she grinned at the younger girl. What she left unsaid was that their group could use a medic that wasn't visibly tied to the group and who didn't travel with the group, in case they were ever incapacitated and needed help from someone outside of Tsunade or her three main students. Turning her attention back to Tsunade and Anko, she narrowed her eyes, seeing the two seemed to be overly eager to get out of the meeting. "You are not going gambling."

"But we just got paid!" Anko protested, loudly, pouting like a child.

"Why the hell can't we?" Tsunade asked, glaring at her apprentice, her expression mirroring Anko's.

Shizune smirked, grabbing hold of Naruto's collar and dragging the boy into a hug, his face mashed firmly between her breasts. "Because _I'm_ going."

The group spent the next couple of hours stowing their travel gear and getting cleaned up from their mission. As dark rolled around they made their way into town, none of the group paying attention to the few Naruto-clones left behind. Once the group was out of sight, one of the Narutos went around to the back of the residence and took out a small vial of blood the blond boy had prepared beforehand, knowing his clones couldn't summon without dispersing themselves trying to get the requisite blood sacrifice. Spreading the blood across his hands, Naruto began sealing before slamming his palms down on the ground. When the cloud of smoke cleared, the boy found himself face-to-snout with a large lizard. "So, did you bring the stuff I asked for?"

The lizard opened its mouth, its long tongue unrolling to place a large bundle of flesh at the boy's feet. The blond grinned and thanked the summon before dismissing it. Pulling out a storage scroll, brush, and ink he quickly extended the range of his smaller seals using the extra ink to draw a circle around the bundle he wanted to seal. Satisfied, he activated the seal and rolled up the scroll, tucking it into one of the scroll holders on his vest before taking off for town.

Making sure that the original Naruto and the group of kunoichi were not in the area, the blond clone dropped from the rooftops in front of a familiar ninja-outfitting store. Walking past the statue, he pushed the door open and headed for the counter, greeting the man there with a smile and a wave. Upon hearing the bell above the door chime, Dane had looked up from the magazine he'd been perusing and raised an eyebrow in curiosity at seeing one of his more recent customers entering the shop without the rest of the group he usually traveled with. "What's up?" asked the retired ninja.

Looking around the store to make sure it was empty, Naruto pulled the scroll out of the scroll-pocket on his chuunin vest. "How much would you charge for a custom order?" the blond asked, making a mental note to have the original Naruto or one of the other clones go open a personal account at the bank later and dump his casino winnings into it.

Dane shrugged. "That would depend on the job, really, though you guys get a discount. What did you have in mind?"

Frowning towards the door as his sharp ears picked up someone outside walking by, he asked, "Mind if I lock the door?"

_That_ had the ex-shinobi's attention. From what he knew of the kid standing at his counter, the boy was never this serious unless it was important, so for him to ask for privacy—in the roundabout way he'd suggested it—spoke of something far more interesting to the old shinobi than anything in the magazine he'd been perusing behind the cover of another magazine on shinobi tools and weapons. _'This had better be good,'_ the shinobi-turned-tailor thought, giving the boy a nod. "Sure, it's usually not busy for a few hours anyway."

When the boy returned from locking the heavy wooden door, he unrolled the small scroll on the counter, getting a raised eyebrow from Dane when he saw the tiny-by-comparison storage seal. "What do you think you could do with this?" he asked, placing a finger on the seal and unsealing the bundle of lizard sheddings.

Reaching out to feel the material, Dane frowned. "That's not leather," he mumbled. Though to the naked eye the bundle of flesh did resemble light-colored leather, the texture was all wrong. Also, the material itself didn't feel nearly as heavy as leather should. Looking closely, he could make out what seemed to be small, individual scales making up the outer surface of the material. "It's too light for leather and it feels kind of like snake skin. Where'd you get this stuff?" Seeing the fox-faced blond grin wide enough that his eyes squinted shut—increasing the foxy effect at the same time—Dane shook his head, deciding he wouldn't be getting an answer to that question any time soon. "So, what's it do?"

Naruto debated whether or not to tell the old shinobi exactly what the cloth was supposed to do. Even bringing it to someone outside of the group was taking a huge risk of the material leaking to the outside world, but he couldn't exactly make what he wanted from it himself. _'Might as well, he'll find out if he uses chakra on it anyway,'_ the blond reasoned. Reaching over to the bundle, he wrapped his upper arm in a short length of it and channeled chakra to the cloth, causing the entire bundle to shimmer momentarily before disappearing entirely. "I would appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone about this stuff."

Dane blinked, looking at where the boy's arm and the bundle had been and now apparently weren't. Squinting, he could make out a faint distortion of the bundle's silhouette, but he guessed that at a distance of around ten meters away no one looking at it would even notice. While he had not been specifically a chakra-sensing ninja, at the time of The Second War nearly every ninja on both sides made sure to be able to sense chakra in at least some capacity and while he had been out of service for some time his skills had not declined much. Dane realized that the boy was putting out more chakra than the material probably required to work and even that would barely be detectable to anyone not looking for it from a range of more than a few meters—probably about the range at which one would ignore the distortion made by the cloth.

"I'll keep my mouth shut," the retired shinobi agreed after a moment of thought. The temptation to simply take the material and sell it to the highest bidder was there but it was tempered by the possibilities presented if this stuff ever became common knowledge. "But it'll cost you," he added, grinning. Seeing the boy nod, Dane asked, "Did you have anything in particular in mind for this stuff?"

Naruto shrugged, dropping the material as it became visible again when he stopped channeling chakra into it. "I was thinking something along the lines of a set of cloaks."

Dane nodded. "That would work, but there are a few problems with using it for cloaks."

"What kind of problems?"

Pointing towards a rack a few feet away, Dane said, "Try one on and see for yourself." When the boy finished digging through the rack and slung a normal cloak fitted for his size around his shoulders, he began moving around in it to test how it would hang as he moved. "As you can see, even a cloak made to hang over the feet will expose the upper legs and feet a bit when you move if you aren't careful. Also, if you're going to be using this stuff for what I think you are, the bottom is open so anyone below you would be able to see up into the cloak. And while this stuff doesn't seem to throw a shadow when it's got chakra running through it, I'm willing to bet the under side would—or would at least be shadowed, so would stand out to anyone on the ground."

Naruto nodded, all of the points the shinobi-turned-tailor made making sense. "So the stuff's useless?"

"I didn't say that."

"Then what do you suggest?" the blond asked, hopping up to the ceiling and frowning in annoyance when the cloak he was wearing flipped over to dangle over his head towards the ground.

"There's an easy fix for that particular annoyance," Dane said as the boy dropped from the ceiling to land upright. "So, how much more of this stuff can you get?"

Biting his lip in thought for a moment, Naruto shrugged before answering simply, "Enough."

"Then I'd suggest a full set of clothes made out of the stuff. Long sleeved shirts, gloves, long pants, shoes—not sandals, and I can add some kind of cowl or face mask to the cloak to pull up under the hood." Giving the material another look, he said, "And there's not much point in wearing the stuff if you stick out like a sore thumb when you're not sticking out, so I'll run a few quick tests to see if It'll retain its abilities if I dye it to look more normal—unless you'd rather just have a set of this stuff and change in and out between it and what you normally wear?"

Naruto shook his head. "No, if we've got to wear full sets for it to work we might as well wear them full time."

"Makes sense," Dane nodded. "Since this is a custom job, I'll need to get measurements from the rest in your little group. Well, that is unless you wanted this just for yourself?"

"No, it's for everyone, I just want it to be a surprise."

The ex-shinobi nodded, grinning. "I see. Then how do you intend to get the measurements?"

Giving the question a moment of thought, Naruto grinned and brought his hands together into the seal for kage bunshin. A moment later, five clones poofed into existence beside the boy. A moment after that, they were replaced by copies of the five kunoichi in the group. "How's this?"

Dane rolled his eyes. "Kage Bunshin is all well and good but henge isn't going to help with getting measurements. I need to actually put tape to body to get accurate results," he said, picking up a roll of measuring tape and waving it in the blond's general direction.

The Tsunade-clone of the group surprised the tailor by snatching the tape out of his hand, measuring from her underarm to her fingertips, and handing it back with the appropriate length marked. "Well?"

Taking the tape back, Dane blinked at the marked number before narrowing his eyes and regarding the clones more closely. "Kai," he said after bringing his hands up into the ram seal. When nothing happened, he frowned and did it again, using more chakra, much to the amusement of the blond and his clones.

"That's not going to work," the boy snickered.

Vaulting over his counter, the tailor directed the Tsunade-clone to lift her arms before he looped the tape around her back and breasts before tugging it tight. Releasing the end of it, he regarded the number there for a moment before glancing at the blond boy and shaking his head. "Never mind, I don't want to know how," he said, then went about taking measurements. "Are you sure these are accurate?"

Naruto nodded. "Pretty sure."

Dane rolled his eyes. "You can't be 'pretty sure,'" he said, but continued measuring since the measurements he'd taken so far matched up to what he'd assumed to be their proper sizes. "You know, you've got to know someone pretty intimately to be able to mimic their appearance like this—and especially with that weird henge of yours." He paused for a moment, a sly grin sliding across his face as he asked, "So, how long have you been getting lucky with them?"

It took the boy a moment to figure out what the older shinobi was asking, but when he did the blond blushed and shook his head rapidly. "What?! No! I'm not a pervert like Ero-Sennin or Kakashi-sensei," the boy denied swiftly.

Shaking his head, Dane chuckled. "The evidence seems to disagree," he said.

"Do all guys turn into perverts when they get older, or is it just ninja?" the blond asked in annoyance.

Dane snickered. "All men are perverts to some extent, kid. Every last one of us. Women too. And if they tell you any different, they're lying." After a moment, he asked, "Did you say 'Kakashi-sensei?'" The boy nodded. "As in Hatake Kakashi, Sharingan Kakashi, Copy-Ninja Kakashi?" Another nod. Having never seen the blond in the company of the legendary scarecrow and having supplied the new hitai-ate for the entire group, Dane had some idea that something had gone wrong in Konoha—especially since their previous Hokage had been the one leading this particular group. Thinking of the Slug Sannin, he grinned. "And let me guess, 'Ero-sennin' is the legendary Toad Sage, Jiraiya of the Sannin."

Naruto nodded. "How'd you know?"

"Never mind," the retired ninja muttered. Everything about this kid screamed 'oddity' and the retired shinobi was just about to the point of asking. The boy who looked remarkably like a young Yondaime Hokage had wandered into his shop with a small group of kunoichi—lead by the Godaime Hokage at the time, no less—and traded in their Konoha hitai-ate for the ones marked with Jiei, the snake-woman had shown up obviously hunting their group, his dog thought the boy smelled like a fox, the group had shown back up again later with the snake-woman and a new girl tagging along, and now the kid had shown up again—this time with a scroll with an abnormally small storage seal written onto it and asking him to make things from a material he'd never seen before while using kage bunshin and some solid henge variant to get the measurements of his teammates.

"So, how much of this stuff do you need to make a few sets for everyone?" the blond asked, rousing Dane from his thoughts.

The older ninja shrugged as he finished up taking his measurements and walked back behind the counter. "Won't really know until I get the dye-test done."

The boy nodded. "I'll go see about getting some more of the stuff," he said, dispersing into a cloud of smoke along with all but one of the clones, which dropped the henge and reverted to the normal Naruto.

Once more, Dane blinked. "I was talking to a clone the entire time?"

"Yep," Naruto nodded, throwing his arms behind his head and grinning. "So, mind if I watch?" Seeing the older shinobi shrug as he took a pair of scissors and cut a sample from the cloth, Naruto followed him deeper into the shop to a work room where he apparently made special orders. "So if you can dye the stuff, about how long do you think it will take to finish this up?"

"If you're willing to pay for a rush job, I could close shop and maybe have one set per person done by the end of the week."

"Why would you need to close the shop?" the boy asked.

Dane rolled his eyes. "Can't work on this and wait on customers too. One distracts from the other. Either I'd snub customers or I'd get nothing done back here."

"I could help out," the boy suggested.

"Clones?" Dane asked, getting a nod. "Think you could make a couple to run things in front without too much trouble?"

The blond grinned. "I can make enough to run every store in town and still have clones left over for training."

Dane got the distinct impression that the boy was not exaggerating, though how the blond had that much chakra was a mystery. Giving the matter a moment of thought, he shrugged. If he was to take the blond at his word, then the boy regularly used tajuu kage bunshin to train—and probably under the Legendary Sannin Tsunade since she was traveling with their group. And while not proficient in the jutsu, Dane did know how to use it and knew enough about it to know that the things learned by clones were learned by the original. It didn't take a genius to figure out the math that by using that technique the boy was effectively training for years worth of time in the time it took most people to learn a single jutsu. A student like that was one-in-a-million and any sensei worth anything would be willing to give various body parts just for a chance to see what they could teach such a student, if only for the challenge of seeing if they could find something they _couldn't_ teach. This was one of those very rare cases where the sensei was privileged to teach the student as opposed to the student being privileged to learn from the sensei. Nodding, Dane made his decision. "Well... I suppose it wouldn't hurt to take on an apprentice. It's not like I've got any kids of my own to pass this stuff on to." Thinking of the boy's team-mates, he grinned. "Besides, it might come in handy for you."

Naruto raised an eyebrow in curiosity. While not about to turn down an opportunity to learn something new—and for free no less!—the boy had to wonder what the older shinobi was hinting at. "How so?"

Turning away from the blond, he explained while running through the process of dying the material. "Well, one thing I've learned in my time since retiring and starting this business is that the key to getting into a woman's pants is often the pants themselves, or the dress, or whatever—you get the idea. It's a pretty simple and often overlooked fact: women love clothes. All women, regardless of how rough around the edges they may act would give their eye teeth for a decent set of clothes. And aside from doctors or medics, it's also one of those exceptions women make to getting undressed for a complete stranger. Show them a few samples, wave around a measuring tape, and they'll be out of whatever they're wearing faster than you can say 'naked girls.'"

The blond rolled his eyes. "I hope I don't turn out like you guys."

Dane looked up from his work long enough to grin at the blond. "Jiraiya wrote Icha-Icha and Kakashi's perversion is as legendary as his ability. Kid, you were doomed from the start."

"Crap."

Pulling the material out of the dye—which just happened to be orange—Dane used his chakra to pull the residual fluid from the material, drying it but leaving the dye in the process. Once it was dry, he channeled chakra into it and grinned when it disappeared. "Congratulations, we have color."

* * *

Morning dawned as it always did in Suna: early and hot. As the acting Kazekage—he had to suppress a snort every time he heard that phrase used by the village council—made his way inside to his office, his mind idly turned over the news he had first learned nearly two weeks ago. Their neighbor and ally Konoha had taken it upon themselves to banish one of the few ninja the Kazekage could honestly say exemplified all of the ideals the Leaf held so dearly. With the Kyuubi-container had gone the Godaime Hokage—someone the acting Kazekage had no experience with but respect for anyway—which had been another huge loss to Konoha.

Since the blond's exile from his former home, the acting Kazekage had tried several attempts to convince the council that extending a formal hand to the missing Hokage's group would be in Suna's best interests, but the council had other ideas. It was too risky, they claimed. It would draw Konoha's ire, they claimed. It would make them an even bigger target for the mysterious 'Akatsuki' group they had been warned about. He cared for none of that. He would bring it up again at the next council meeting. If they refused him again... he would feed them to his sand. He had been patient enough with them, it was time they understood that a ninja village was ruled by its Kage, not its Council—a lesson Konoha seemed to be in desperate need of as well. His mind made up, Sabaku no Gaara grinned—a sight that would have sent anyone in the village of Suna fleeing in terror for their lives. Luckily, no one was in the corridor leading to his office at this hour to witness the fleeting glimpse past Gaara's normal impassive mask of calm indifference.

Taking a seat at his desk, Gaara pulled the small stack of papers from one of his many in-boxes—the one specifically for items of interest to the Kazekage as opposed to others dealing with village-related issues and another for mission requests. Quickly reading over the top sheet, Gaara nearly smiled. It seemed his sister had been organizing his paperwork for him again. He waved towards one of the ANBU standing guard in his office—unnecessary due to his sand's defenses but a formality he allowed as it occasionally had its uses. "Bring me Temari."

The ANBU disappeared from the room. Ten minutes later, the eldest child and only daughter of the previous Kazekage made her way into her brother's office, her eyes narrowed in a cross between a glare and trying to shield them from the morning light. "You summoned me, Kazekage-sama?" she asked, the irritation at having her sleep interrupted obvious in her tone even to Gaara. It was then she realized just who she was sniping at and she came fully awake, standing to attention. She could almost have sworn her little brother looked _amused_ at her reaction but passed it off as simply a trick of the light and lack of sleep on her part.

In truth, Gaara was amused, though he did not let it show. Temari and Kankuro were both still jumpy around the red-head and had good reason to be, though he supposed that time would eventually allow them to view him as something more than 'our little brother, the killing machine.' Looking back down at the paper on his desk, Gaara read over it again knowing that forcing his sister to wait would only irritate her further. The document was a copy of one filed in Otafuku Gai of Fire Country by the Godaime Hokage requesting the formation of a wandering minor ninja village, serving under no Lord of any of the Elemental Nations. In order to be recognized, they would need the acknowledgment of at least one of the major five villages, preferably two. Having a pretty good idea of just how much it would piss off the people who had banished Uzumaki, not to mention irritating Suna's own council, Gaara signed the document and pressed it with the seal of the office of the Kazekage.

Glancing up briefly, Gaara saw that his sister's temper was starting to overrun her natural inclination to fear him and threat of being squished or no, she would soon snap. He slid the document into his Out pile before turning his attention to the blond standing in front of his desk. "You're being reassigned."

Temari frowned, but kept her complaints civil. "Why? I liked the liaison assignment with Konoha," she argued, annoyance winning out over self-preservation for the moment. After all, less time away from Suna meant less time spent somewhere where she could waste water simply soaking in a bath. Suna wasn't as hard-up for that particular resource as other villages in the country of Wind, but that didn't mean they didn't ration it tightly anyway. Water for personal use—showers, baths, even flushing the toilets—was tightly regulated. No more than six minutes of continuous use for a shower, no bath tubs in any home to discourage people from wasting the water and only a large communal bath, and low-water-use commodes were just a few ways they tried to conserve a resource that every other nation took for granted. And in Suna not even the closest thing to royalty—the Kazekage and the family thereof—went around that particular rule, though it was more of a case of leading by example as opposed to not being able to bend the rules a little. And Temari had to admit, she'd grown just a little spoiled spending time in Konoha.

"Be quiet," Gaara commanded quietly, silencing any further protests Temari may have made. "Go to Fire Country and make contact with the Godaime Hokage's team. You are to act as liaison between them and Suna. Also, make sure they know that should they need it, Suna will provide protection for them within our borders."

"Are they still in that town east of Konoha? Tanzaku Gai, right?"

Gaara shook his head. "Otafuku Gai, but it is east of Konoha. If you do not find them there, contact me and wait there for them. It seems that town is the best bet for catching up to them."

"When am I leaving?" the blond asked, somewhat excited about what looked to be a relatively long-term assignment outside of Suna.

"Now," the redhead answered. As his sister turned to leave, he added, "And Temari?" Seeing he had her attention, he continued. "Do not fail me."

Temari shuddered at the tone in her little brother's voice and nodded quickly. "R-right Gaara. I'll contact you when I get there," she said, leaving the office as fast as possible without actually running.

As his sister left, Gaara briefly entertained the notion that she may take interest in his fellow jinchuriki, or vice verse, thus possibly gaining him a brother-in-law who wasn't afraid of him. Shaking his head, he dismissed the thought and moved on to other things. After all, that kind of thing only happened in cheesy smut novels of the kind his sister kept hidden in her room—or tried to, anyway, since both he and Kankuro had caught her reading them on more than one occasion. Not that Gaara would know the contents of those orange-covered books... and most assuredly not because he had secretly borrowed one from Temari to see what the appeal was. After all, it would be beneath a Kazekage to steal pornography from his sister. ...That, and Gaara worried she may just find a way to kill him, sand or no, if she ever found out.

* * *

As the sun rose over Otafuku Gai, Naruto groaned and threw his arm over his face to shield his eyes. Already he was planning to never, ever let Shizune take him to a casino again. Unlike Anko or Tsunade, who both seemed to pick one game and lose consistently at it until they lost enough money to call it a night, Shizune went in with a plan and did not leave until she deemed their mission successful. She had forced the blond to help her scout the playing floor, looking for people she identified as 'high rollers' who were throwing around large amounts of money and were likely to stick around for the duration of the night.

Once she'd identified several such marks, she had set about putting the boy to work earning her money since she never played a game herself. The black haired woman had kept the two of them there well into the night, winning one game before switching to another on the other side of the room to keep from staying around the same people for very long in an effort to get as much money as she could from people clearly willing to part with it. Tsunade's first apprentice had only left when the gambling parlor had sent down an official to politely ask them to take their winnings and leave the premises for the night. They welcomed the pair back another night—the blond in particular—but requested they give the other patrons a respite for the rest of the evening.

Groaning, Naruto attempted to roll over and go back to sleep, only to be stopped part-way by what felt like a warm body. His mind and body quickly came to the agreement that yes, there was a warm body sleeping next to his own and there were very good odds that it was female. Two months ago, Naruto would have immediately bolted from his futon, possibly while yelling that it wasn't his fault and could Sakura please not hit him again—apparently his pink-haired ex-teammate had attempted to sneak into the Uchiha's sleeping bag once or twice but always woke up in Naruto's by the time the sun came up. It had been Naruto's opinion that Sasuke moved the girl in the middle of the night just to piss him off.

A little under a month ago, Naruto would have blushed profusely before swiftly vacating his futon or sleeping bag but would have kept his mouth shut to keep from waking Hinata or Shizune—both of whom had a habit of moving into his in their sleep if they slept anywhere near each other, though the boy was at a loss when it came to explaining why. Well, at least in Shizune's case. Anko had pretty much beaten the fact that Hinata had a crush on him into his head when she'd first joined their group. Speaking of the only-somewhat-sane special-jonin, since joining Naruto had learned that she also had a habit of wandering in her sleep, though apparently wasn't picky as to whom she wound up with. Apparently only Tsunade didn't sleep-walk, probably because she and Shizune sometimes shared a sleeping bag anyway. And now? Naruto simply shrugged it off and tried to go back to sleep, yawning as Shizune unconsciously squeezed her arms around him in her sleep.

Despite his best attempts at sleep, the blond found himself slowly coming fully awake, aware now that he was not in the room in their home in Otafuku Gai but rather he and Shizune had apparently collapsed in the living room when they'd gotten home. The sound of quiet footsteps announced Hinata's arrival from upstairs, followed by her equally soft voice greeting him. "Good morning, Naruto-kun," she said, smiling down at the blond and making her way into the kitchen for her turn at breakfast duty.

Giving up on catching any more sleep Naruto untangled himself from Shizune, wiped the young woman's drool off his shoulder, and made his way into the kitchen to help Hinata with breakfast. Once everyone was up and dressed for the day and had eaten breakfast, they broke off into groups to work on various skills. The original versions of Naruto and the kunoichi made their way towards the back of the house to work on physical training and attempt team building exercises as Anko had suggested. Several groups of clones of Tsunade, Shizune, Hinata, and Naruto split off to various areas to work on medical jutsu, ninjutsu from the Hokage's personal library, Tsunade's strength enhancing technique, and an advanced medical text course. A group composed of Tsunade, Shizune, Anko, the original Isaribi, and a Tenten clone worked on some beginner-to-intermediate level medical texts. Several clones of Naruto spent the morning working with an Anko and a Hinata clone on the basics of elemental manipulation.

No one in the group paid attention to the trio of Naruto clones headed into town—one to go see to setting up a separate account at the bank and two more to go help Dane with the new material. Likewise, no one paid attention to another set of clones leaving the property—one of Shizune and one of Hinata. The pair made their way to the same office Tsunade and Shizune had used to file to have their group recognized as a traveling hidden village in an attempt to potentially frustrate Konoha legally. Making their way inside, they found that they were the first customers inside the small office. Looking up from her book, the clerk there smiled up at the dark-haired woman she recognized from her last visit. "Can I help you?" After all, the last time this particular kunoichi had been to these offices she and her master had set into motion something that would eventually seriously stir shit up and that had livened the woman's day more than anything had in the last several years.

Shizune nodded, placing a hand on Hinata's back and pushing her forward slightly. "Yes, we'd like to file for emancipation of a minor and removal from a clan register."

"Oh? Which clan?" the clerk asked, taking a closer look at the smaller girl. The girl in question had short, lavender colored hair and very fair skin, and despite her young age was starting to develop curves in all the right places. In short, she was a figure of beauty and would only grow more beautiful with age. The woman behind the counter was almost jealous of the younger girl, though seeing a hitai-ate around the girl's neck kept her jealousy in check. After all, anyone wearing one of those routinely put their lives in danger to keep everyone else safe and happy. The clerk's eyes settled on those of the girl across the counter from her—pale lavender and seemingly pupilless—and had the answer to her question of the girl's heritage.

"Hyuuga," Shizune answered.

A grin stretched across the older woman's face—it seemed her day was starting off on a high point. "First name?"

"Hinata," the small girl answered quietly.

The clerk quirked one neat eyebrow in interest. This close to Konoha, nearly everyone—especially anyone in any kind of official position—knew at least the defining characteristics of the Hyuuga clan and the names of the head of the clan and the two heirs. To have the eldest daughter of the head of the clan here attempting to file for emancipation and disown her clan—well, that just made her day. She quickly drew up the proper paperwork and slid it across the counter for Shizune and Hinata to sign. Shizune was able to legally act as the girl's guardian, or substitute for the girl's legal guardian in Tsunade's place since they both were apprentices under the same master—one of the little-known privileges that came with being a Sannin or the apprentice to one. "Would you like to apply for a new family name?" she asked, looking over the documents once they had been returned to make sure they had signed and initialed in all the right places.

Blushing, Hinata shook her head. She already had her mind set on a family name to take in the future, there would be no point in making one up on the spot just to have to replace it later. Besides, if going without a family name was good enough for Tsunade and Shizune while they had been on the road before coming back to Konoha, it would be good enough for her. "Just Hinata."

Seeing the younger girl's blush, the clerk nodded. _'Ah, young love,'_ she sighed, then rolled her eyes at her own sentimentality. Looking over the paperwork once more before she filed it, she said, "You know, normally this kind of thing would require a signature or seal from a judge or magistrate. For this though, since it involves one of the major clans... it would take the approval of the Fire Lord himself or the Hokage for it to go through unchallenged. Otherwise, the previous clan would still hold a legal claim over her as heir, despite what legal authority a master has in regard to an apprentice."

Thinking the clerk's words over for a moment, Shizune asked, "So if you had, say, the Hokage's personal seal on that it would make it official and legally binding?" Getting a nod, Shizune grinned and fished around in her pocket for a moment before coming up with just such a seal. "I believe the Godaime Hokage approves of this," she said, stamping the paper to imprint it with the seal—one of those that was raised and would both apply ink and physically imprint the seal itself into the paper.

The clerk blinked at the seal for a moment before she filed the paperwork away to be copied and turned back to smile at the ex-Hyuuga. "Congratulations, Hinata-san."

"Thank you," Hinata bowed as the pair made their way out of the office. Once they were on the street, she asked, "So, how did last night go?"

Shizune smirked. "We got kicked out for winning too much. It made Naruto's haul from when Tsunade-sama and Anko forced him to go look like chump change."

"So where are we going now?"

"Well," Shizune answered, leading the younger girl across the street, "I thought we could spend the morning learning how to better manage our finances." Seeing Hinata's questioning look, Shizune continued. "As you know, we left Konoha with a very large sum of money. We now own a real-estate agency, which turns a nice quarterly profit. Naruto's luck in the gambling parlors has brought in a significant amount of cash but I don't know how long we can rely on that. I was thinking we could do some investment banking, possibly look into buying into the stock market, and shift some money around. And while we're at it, we can see if there are any large plots of land for sale outside of Fire Country. I also want to see if I can snag another business or two. It wouldn't hurt to have a stable source of income aside from missions, so that we don't have to rely on them to keep from dipping into the treasury fund we took from Konoha."

"Aren't we supposed to vote on those things?"

Shizune nodded. "We will. We're just window shopping for now." A flash of orange entering a nearby shop caught her eye and Shizune turned her attention up the street. "Now what's Naruto doing there?" Shizune wondered, heading towards the door to _The Great Dane._

* * *

**Author's Notes:** I came upon a realization while writing this chapter and reviewing the last. After looking back over other Naruto related stuff I've done but not posted, I've come to a conclusion. My Anko seems to be channeling Noel half the time. It's not intentional, but it seems to be what's going on. If you don't know who Noel is and like Teen Titans, go read Legendmaker's stuff, starting with _Black and White_. It shouldn't take you long to read all of the stuff there. I'll have probably updated in the month or so it'll take you to read those and the related stories by other authors.

In case you can't tell, it amuses me to occasionally poke fun at Chunin Exam Day by referencing it here—namely the spiel Dane gives Naruto about perverts and women-and-clothes, having Naruto toss out ideas as sounding insane for stuff like chakra control exercises, and the like. And now that I've made the Anko-Noel connection, expect that to get referenced at least once in the foreseeable future. I only do it because I like the stuff I'm making fun of, otherwise I wouldn't bother.

On another apprenticeship: Naruto's going to be picking up more than one (he already HAS more than one, actually). Jiraiya and Tsunade as formal apprenticeships, Dane as an informal, possibly a short-term one in Kiri... I don't plan to have him learn everything about making every damn thing possible, but where I can't have him or one of the others of the group learn a skill I will probably have someone they can get that service or skill from—for instance, custom tailoring from Dane, custom supplies and weapons later, stuff like that. I can't have them become completely self-sufficient but I can have them build up a network of contacts they can use to essentially duplicate the infrastructure of a typical hidden village.

Wasn't too sure about the waking-up-in-the-morning scene, but it sort of wrote itself so I decided to go with it. It's something I vaguely had in mind anyway, I just plan to get around to it one part at a time. The part about Sakura? Hadn't intended and didn't see it coming until I watched it come out on the screen. Also wasn't too sure about the way I portrayed Gaara, but again, it writes itself sometimes. At this point in time, I see Gaara trying to become something more human and realizing that nearly everyone around him is still going to see him as a monster for the time being.

This chapter marks the first major point in the story where I could have gone two ways with a scene and actually wrote both ways it could have gone. I was unhappy with the first quarter or so of the story, so tonight I decided to rewrite that, leave the middle, and then write everything else afterward until I could call it done. I have to say that I'm much happier with the way this version turned out. So, since I had two versions, I'll post the first part of the original for you to read to get a feel for what kind of thought and work goes into this story. There will probably be at least one more chapter like this, where I have something that can go two ways and wind up posting both for comparison, though there are a few more places where things could go differently where it won't happen and I'll probably not say anything about it. The next one for sure is coming up fairly soon, I just have to get there. ...That, and make up my mind which way I want to go with it since both look good.

On a side note, I know there are probably more than a few mistakes I've missed in this one and it'll probably be rough for a day or so until I work out all the kinks. I'll take this part out once I'm done getting everything out that spell check didn't catch. You're getting this one about as rough as I'm willing to post them, since I figure posting it now will make up for posting it a little late.

* * *

**Omake Start:** How things could have gone, but didn't.

"Hiashi-sama has ordered us to bring you home."

For a moment, there was silence. Those of Team Hokage that knew of the difficulties between Hinata and her family—and that was most of them—were tensing for battle. Well, all save for one. A snort of amusement drew Neji's attention briefly to the trench coat clad form of Anko. "Why don't you guys go home and tell Hiashi to piss up a rope?"

Several Byakugan eyes narrowed at the perceived insult to their clan, but the Hyuuga held their tongues. "I am afraid I can not do that," Neji denied, though the idea was somewhat tempting. Were it not for the Caged Bird seal, he was sure Hiashi would have heard that phrase or some like it more than once in the past. Turning his attention back to his cousin, Neji said, "You will come with us now."

Neji's attempt to reach around the blond in front of Hinata came up short when a loud pop signaled the appearance of several kage bunshin. Neji hadn't seen him even perform the seal for the technique. "I don't think she wants to," the blond in front of the girl said quietly. In the trees and on the ground around them, clones of the boy were drawing weapons. "Remember what I told your team the last time you showed up? I still don't want to have to clean up the mess. Just leave, Neji."

"Stand aside, Uzumaki."

Naruto shook his head. "I won't," he denied. Neji thought it was odd when the boy suddenly grinned, before pulling something from his belt. Every clone in the area had already pulled the same item out, though none of the Hyuuga recognized it. That changed when, nearly as one, the clones pumped chakra into the Raijin and activated the lightening blade. The normal electrical crackle of the blade was multiplied several hundred-fold, the effect sounding not unlike being caught outside in an electrical storm. Hairs along arms and necks waved in the suddenly charged air.

"That's..." one of the Hyuuga whispered, and despite not recognizing the weapon for what it was at first, they each knew of its history enough to place the blade now.

Neji took a step back from Team Hokage, reassessing his situation. He knew that Uzumaki was good with his clones in a fight, and would have only improved in the time since he'd last faced the blond. And while clones were destroyed easily enough individually, en mass they could pose serious problems. But a mob of them, each wielding the legendary Raijin like they owned the thing? Kaiten or not, they wouldn't _need _any kind of training with a sword or familiarity with the blade to pose a threat—especially since Neji was the only Branch House Hyuuga who could perform the Heavenly Spin anyway. All they really had to do was stand close together and swing the things around with no regard for human life, since they were clones anyway so any accidental contact wouldn't do anything worse than dispelling a clone. "Oh, you think that's scary?" the blond grinned, he and his clones bringing up their fingers into what everyone had come to recognize as the single seal the boy used for kage bunshin normally. Small pops of smoke and chakra preceded the arrival of a second Raijin blade in the hands of every clone plus the original. Shuriken kage bunshin, no doubt. "Still want to try it?" the boy teased.

Taking a calculated risk that the boy was just bluffing, Neji's hand shot forward in an attempt to disable the original with a single jyuuken strike and subsequently eliminate the clones. The Hyuuga prodigy blinked in surprise when he found his hand stopped, not by the blond or any of the larger threats on the small team they faced, but by his cousin, whom he'd dismissed as a threat. It seemed the girl who had been shaking in fear just a moment ago had finally had enough of being threatened and pushed around by her own family. Neji's opinion of her changed again when, with seemingly no effort at all, she pushed past the blond boy, pushing Neji's hand and the boy himself with her, forcing him back towards the other Hyuuga. Looking down into his shorter cousin's face, what he found there scared the prodigy for just a moment. His normally calm, passive, shy cousin was sending him a look that, could looks alone kill, would have left nothing of the prodigy behind. "Neji-niisan, go home," she ordered quietly, though the boy could hear the thinly veiled threat in her voice.

"I can not."

She released his hand. Drawing her other hand back, she brought it around to slap her cousin. Almost rolling his eyes, Neji negligently brought his hand up to block the blow... and gasped in pain when it snapped both the bones of his forearm like twigs, brushed his now-broken arm aside like it wasn't even there, and collided with the side of his face with enough force to send the Hyuuga boy sprawling to the ground and straight into unconsciousness. Behind her, Team Hokage looked on in silence at the display of violence from the least expected person in their group. Turning her attention away from her downed cousin, she regarded the other Hyuuga. "This the only order I will ever give you as the Hyuuga heir: leave, now. Take Neji and return to Konoha and tell my father I renounce the Hyuuga name. If they demand you explain your failure, you can tell them I used the seal on you. Just go, please."

Swiftly looking to each other for confirmation, the Branch Hyuuga bowed as one before a pair of them picked up Neji between them and the group swiftly took to the trees, as the Naruto-clones around them dispersed to clear a path. When they were out of sight, Anko asked, "If you could have ended the whole thing by using the seal, why didn't you?"

Hinata turned back towards the group and smiled softly. "I can't."

"Why not?" Naruto asked, putting away the Raijin—much to Tenten's disappointment. The events with Neji had put her into an awkward position, having to choose between coming to the defense of the only female friend she had at the moment or standing aside so her team mate and fellow Konoha ninja could take the friend in question back home where—though they did not say it outright—she would undoubtedly be sealed with the Caged Bird seal. Despite the situation though, seeing that many copies of the Raijin alive and in use had been pretty exciting for the weapon mistress.

"I don't know how to activate the seal. Unlike my sister, I never wanted to learn," she said simply before turning back towards the path to their home. "Can we go home now?" she asked, not waiting for an answer before taking off along the path to their temporary base-op. for Fire Country.

The group shook themselves out of their collective stupor at seeing the meekest of their bunch suddenly grow a spine and hurried to follow. Trading a look with her first apprentice, Tsunade grinned. "So, you've mastered the strength enhancing technique?"

Ahead of the sannin and beside Naruto, Hinata shook her head. "I wouldn't say mastered. I can get it to work about half the time though, but only at lower strengths. If I'd been able to do it like you could, that would have torn his head off," she answered simply.

Beside her, Naruto grinned. "Maybe, but it was still a pretty decent payback for the chuunin exams. That was awesome, Hinata-chan," he praised the girl, drawing a blush from her, before adding quietly, "Kind of scary though."

**End Omake.**


	13. Departure for Snow

**The Missing Hokage**

**13: Departure for Snow**

* * *

Hinata frowned slightly as she watched her favorite blond get tossed around like a rag doll by a certain trench-coat clad special-jonin for what seemed like the tenth time that afternoon. For the last week, it seemed that his mind had been elsewhere while he worked with the rest of the group. Then again, considering what she had seen at the beginning of the week, he had good reason for his mind to wander. While she and Shizune—or clones of the pair, rather—had taken care of some business in Otafuku Gai, Shizune had spotted the blond boy walking into the ninja outfitting store they had been doing business with recently. A quick peek inside had shown the boy behind the counter, drumming his fingers in boredom as he read what looked to be a shonen manga while apparently minding the store.

Shizune had dismissed the oddity, saying that if Naruto wanted them to know what he was doing he would tell them. Hinata couldn't help but agree, though as they went to continue on their way to the bank the ex-Hyuuga had risked a peek inside with her Byakugan. Past the Naruto minding the counter, she had caught sight of several other copies of the boy along with the store owner in the back room, working on materials. She nearly lost her composure when one of the clones had applied chakra to the material they were working on and it disappeared, with just a residual outline of chakra her dojutsu picked up as the only sign that it was there at all. Biting her lip to keep silent, she had decided to take Shizune's words to heart and trust the boy to tell them when he was ready.

Blinking back out of her thoughts, she focused on the gloved fist coming towards her sternum. Leaning almost impossibly far back and twisting to the side, Hinata planted one foot and brought the other up in a kick towards the special-jonin's face. As expected, Anko leaned back out of the path of the blow. Channeling chakra to her left leg, she pushed off the ground and shifted her hips, using the combined momentum from the kick and the push off to flip sideways over the now-retracting arm. Two small hands shot downward, tagging the older kunoichi's arm and closing half the tenketsu on her forearm in addition to supplying enough force to propel her away from the jonin. A short twist to reorient herself and the girl landed upright several feet from the jonin just as Naruto captured the woman's attention again, a foot aiming for her head as he drew back to throw several kunai. Seeing the flicker of chakra, Hinata pulled two of her own kunai and flung them at where she thought the woman would come out of her kawarimi, only to have the jonin use another kawarimi to switch with a kunai she'd flung at the blond's back, putting her behind Naruto. Hinata's kunai hit the tree Anko had first moved into while Naruto's hit the ground where she'd been before she used the replacement technique. Anko's fist hit the back of Naruto's head, sending him stumbling forward and off balance.

"That's enough for today," the older kunoichi called, drawing a glare from the blond she'd swatted. When the boy straightened up from his near fall and Hinata rejoined him, Anko started what they'd become familiar with as an after-spar review. She turned her attention to Hinata first, smiling. "Nice work, especially dodging that punch since I know you weren't paying attention at the time, but you need to learn to anticipate more than one jump from a kawarimi or shunshin. We'll work more on that next time I suppose." Seeing Hinata nod, she turned her attention to the blond boy. "If you'd get your head out of your ass, you wouldn't get hit as much," she supplied. "You stopped using Hebi halfway through. I told you, that brawling crap you picked up at the academy isn't going to work in the big leagues, kiddo. I know that's not really your fault and you're new to Hebi... and you're not really suited to it, but even half-assing it like you are it's still better than that crap you slip back into whenever you get pissed off or distracted."

"Not flexible enough for it," the blond grumbled. "And the way I fight isn't _that_ bad. I kicked Sasuke's ass with it."

Anko rolled her eyes. That particular argument had been used and shot down more than once, she figured he just liked being difficult. That, and he was probably getting frustrated with constantly having his 'style' as it were criticized verbally and then getting beaten handily by all of the older kunoichi when limited to just taijutsu. With his massive chakra reserves pretty much useless in such a fight, the boy found himself getting beaten on a regular basis. Having his face rubbed in his faults repeatedly did very little for the boy's confidence. The only thing that spared him too much embarrassment was that Anko and Hinata seemed to be the only people in their group suited to taijutsu-only battle. Shizune relied primarily on medical jutsu or ninjutsu during actual battle and it had been a very, very long time since Tsunade had used any real taijutsu technique when she had brute force on her side. The Sannin could and did use elemental jutsu, medical jutsu, summons, and pretty much anything else she could get her hands on—literally, sometimes—in a real fight, but when limited to taijutsu without her enhanced strength she had only a jonin's level of competency in the skill—and not a jonin of Gai's level for sure. Her entire taijutsu style was built for use around her strength enhancing technique, so without it she found herself actually losing to the younger, faster Anko on occasion. Years of experience could and did make up for a lack of style, but not enough to put her as far ahead as she was _with_ the strength enhancing technique than without. In comparison, were either of the other two Sannin willing to fight with such handicaps, they would find themselves at far less of a disadvantage than their female former-teammate.

"Yeah, and if you'd been using Hebi we wouldn't be having this conversation," Anko sighed, reaching out to ruffle the blond's hair in exasperation. Sometimes, she wanted to just hold the brat down and pound his head into the ground until he got over the whole 'bring Sasuke back' promise crap. It was sorely tempting, especially as it looked like it could cause problems in the future. In her mind the Hatake, the Uchiha, and most especially the Haruno brat were nothing but trouble for the blond.

Kakashi had failed pretty hard as a sensei to the boy, especially since it was plainly obvious—at least in her mind—just whose kid he was. And even if he wasn't, Kakashi should have had enough respect for his own sensei to honor Yondaime's wishes and at least try to teach the kid more than he had. Then again, maybe Kakashi just sucked as a sensei and it wasn't done out of malice—the Haruno was probably proof enough of that. As for the Uchiha, Sasuke had betrayed all of them when they were still with Konoha seeking power to kill his brother. Hell, he'd shoved a Chidori into Naruto's lung and the blond just waved it off like it had been an accidental broken nose in a spar. No, the Uchiha was a major blind spot for the blond Kyuubi-container and Anko was honestly afraid of what would happen should the boy ever be forced to confront the traitor again. And the pink-haired Haruno brat... she could do no wrong in Naruto's mind, from what Anko could tell. She knew from talking to Hinata or listening to Hinata and Tenten talking that Haruno had spurned blondie's affections from day one but always seemed to turn up any time she was in a pissy mood or generally craving attention. She had some hold over the boy's heart that would need to be broken, and soon, if things were going to progress the way Anko wanted them to.

Clearing those thoughts from her mind, she focused on trying to teach the boy something without coming off sounding like a bitch about it—if only in her own mind. Honestly, she didn't feel she was cut out for this teaching stuff. She didn't have nearly as much patience and tolerance as Kurenai. "As much of a bastard as snake-face is, he's still a genius. He made that style specifically to defeat dojutsu like the Sharingan and Byakugan and chakra-sensing type ninjas. Even half-assed it's better than the academy taught stuff. The flexibility and general movements of the style are only half of what makes it so effective but it's the half you need most right now. I know it's a hard style to learn but I wouldn't bother with you if I thought you couldn't pick it up." Seeing the blond perk up slightly at the back-handed compliment, she grinned. "Now, answer me this: you know kawarimi don't you?" The boy nodded, so she continued. "Then why don't you use it more?" Hearing him mumble something, she asked, "What was that?"

"I said it's cause I can't tell when to unless I see it coming."

Anko blinked. There was no way the academy would have shorted the boy such a fundamental skill. There was also no way Kakashi could have missed him not having it and not worked to rectify the situation. Narrowing her eyes, she turned her attention towards Hinata for a moment. "Go stand over there and close your eyes. No Byakugan either," she said, getting a nod from the younger kunoichi as the girl moved into position for what was about to become a live demonstration. Turning her attention back to Naruto, she asked, "You use it when you see crap coming your way?" Seeing the blond nod, she asked, "But not if you can't see someone attacking you?"

"How am I supposed to dodge or kawarimi if I can't see what I'm supposed to be evading?" the boy asked, his tone somewhat petulant but Anko could tell he genuinely wanted to know the answer to that.

That was the question Anko had been waiting for. "Watch," she said simply. An instant later, she disappeared from in front of the boy and reappeared behind Hinata, who instinctively ducked the woman's half-speed blow by leaning forward, planting a hand on the ground, and tried to tag the older kunoichi with a back kick. Anko evaded the kick with another kawarimi, this time putting herself in front of Naruto, who pulled his head to the side out of the way of her second punch—which had come much faster than the one aimed at Hinata but still not at her full speed. "So you saw me coming that time?" she asked and was slightly impressed when he nodded. Not many people could _see_the switch of a kawarimi or a shunshin without some form of dojutsu. Usually only taijutsu-focused ninja such as Gai, Lee, Kakashi, and herself could. Even then, the ninja in question had to have very sharp eyesight to be able to do so. Kurenai, for instance, could not actually see the switch—but like most other high-level ninja had learned to adapt to not actually need to see it to know where her opponent was coming from or going. Sensing the chakra displacement from such a jutsu was a fundamental, academy-taught skill that nearly every genin could do on an instinctual level by the time they graduated—_had_ to be able to do to pass the taijutsu portion of the genin exam, actually. It was then that she remembered the boy flunked every genin exam he'd taken, up until the last where he got the pass with the Mizuki incident. "Close your eyes," she instructed, her hands coming to rest at her sides.

"Why?" Naruto asked suspiciously. If she had something in mind like what she'd done with Hinata, then there was no way he could dodge.

"Just do it, brat," she growled. Not taking her eyes off the blond, she said, "Hinata, why don't you go inside? We'll be in in a little while." When the younger girl didn't immediately go, she turned her head enough to send a glare at her. "Now."

"Hey, you don't have to be an ass to Hinata-chan just because I don't get something," Naruto protested even as the shorter girl nodded and sent an apologetic look towards Naruto before making her way across the property's back yard and inside.

"I wasn't being an ass. I just figured you would rather not have anyone around to witness this," she grinned. "Wouldn't want to embarrass you too much in front of _Hinata-chan_."

Blushing a bit, Naruto attempted to divert her attention back to the original topic. "So, what are we doing?"

The special-jonin rolled her eyes at the lame attempt at distraction but decided to let him get away with it this time. "Being able to sense chakra is vital to a ninja's survival. Every genin should know how to do it to some extent before graduation. Usually it only extends as far as being able to tell when someone activates jutsu close by—kawarimi or henge for instance. Not everyone can do much more than that, hell some people can't even pick up a normal henge being used near them unless it's right at the moment it's cast since the chakra requirement for it is pretty small. Yours seems to break that rule somehow, since it doesn't use chakra to maintain the technique," she mused. "My point though is that nearly every ninja can at least pick up the activation or release of a jutsu nearby. It's been taught in the academy since the first War."

"So... how do you do it?" the boy asked, confirming Anko's suspicions.

"Practice. Lots and lots of practice. It's why they start trying to teach it as soon as you start taijutsu lessons and part of why it takes so long to graduate the academy. It's one of those skills you kind of need to keep from getting yourself and your teammates killed." Seeing the boy's annoyed look, she changed tactics. "You had Kakashi as your sensei over Team Seven, right? He ever introduce you to that 'thousand years of pain' technique?" The blond's annoyed look and blush were confirmation enough. Anko chuckled. "Yeah, either Jiraiya or your.. Yondaime came up with the super kancho ass-poke of doom. Not sure which though, since I wouldn't put it past Yondaime to do it just to irritate the piss out of Kakashi and that kind of thing should pretty much be expected of _that_ Sannin. Anywho... It usually doesn't surprise anyone unless they really suck at chakra detection. He used a kawarimi to do it too, didn't he?"

"Yeah, I think so," the boy nodded, glaring at the ground in annoyance at his old sensei. "Launched me into a stream with it."

"Ouch," she winced in sympathy, though she was grinning at the mental image that presented. "Surprised he didn't try to fix this problem then, since that would have been a pretty good indicator you either couldn't detect chakra or just sucked at it." Then again, if he'd left the blond handicapped on purpose, it would mean he would never surpass the Uchiha in battle unless Sasuke really started slacking off and never awakened his Sharingan, Naruto was forced to tap into Kyuubi's chakra, or the blond could somehow last in a prolonged fight against the Uchiha and simply out-last him. Anko couldn't see a reason to do so though as crippling one member of the team—directly or indirectly—would seem to go against what Kakashi professed his views on teamwork to be. By so handicapping one member of the team, he would effectively be hurting the entire team. Unless he somehow expected the Uchiha to take up the slack and improve to the point where he could cover for the blond and the pinkette while fighting his own battles. That hadn't happened though—Naruto had proved surprisingly good in close-quarters combat, at least when using massive amounts of his own or Kyuubi's chakra. The blond boy was almost like Tsunade that way: using brute force to substitute for skill. And the Uchiha hadn't been concerned enough with his teammates to even try to get better to help them, so when he'd suddenly been faced with Naruto rapidly closing the gap between their skill levels with raw power and a few skills from Jiraiya he'd left to find his own Sannin and borrowed power.

"So you can teach me how?"

The older kunoichi nodded. "Yeah, I know a way to. Thing is, if you think learning Hebi is annoying then this is going to be on a completely different level."

"Is that how you learned?" the boy asked, eager to try pretty much anything once, especially if it would lead to being able to fight more evenly with the special-jonin. His grin faltered slightly at the far-off look on the woman's face.

"Yeah," Anko nodded. "He taught it to me as part of learning Hebi, actually. It's the other half of the style," she answered quietly. Shaking her head to clear it, she shot a grin down at the blond that scared him to his core. "Close your eyes." When the boy complied, she brought her right arm up to swat at the side of his head, stopping the blow as it came to within an inch of its target. She frowned when he didn't so much as flinch. Flicking the boy's ear with her finger, she brought her hand back and grinned when he opened his eyes enough to glare at her. "You'd better catch on quick. I'm going to start hitting you if you don't," she warned. On her next strike, this time from the opposite side, she channeled more chakra into her arm hoping that would draw the boy's attention. When she got no response, she flicked his other ear, harder than she had the first time. This time the blond's closed eyes scrunched in annoyance, but stayed closed.

The kunoichi struck at the boy a third time, this time from her left again. Halfway to his head, he pulled his head down out of the path of the blow and caught her somewhat-slow moving arm. "Got you!" he grinned.

Anko smirked, pulling her arm out of his grasp before shrugging off her coat and tossing it under a nearby tree, leaving her only in the mostly-fishnet armor top she usually wore under it and exposing way too much skin in the blond's opinion. "See if you can do it again, this time without relying on hearing my coat sleeves pop."

"Crap."

It was well after dark when a very frustrated blond and an almost-equally frustrated special-jonin made their way back inside the place Team Hokage had come to call home. Looking up from her place on the sofa in the main/living room where she'd been having a discussion with Hinata about her training, Tsunade frowned at the sight of a bruised and annoyed Naruto and focused on the special-jonin behind him. "Anything we should know about?"

"He can't sense chakra worth a shit," Anko supplied bluntly, getting a glare thrown her way by the boy in front of her for her trouble. "I'm working on it."

Hinata stood from the couch and followed Naruto up the stairs as he went to wash up and get changed for the night. "Naruto-kun," Hinata called softly, causing the blond to pause halfway to his room and turn to look at her curiously. The bruises on the sides of his face were nearly gone, from just the short time since he'd walked inside the house. Hinata frowned, wondering how bad they must have originally been for them to take even that long to heal considering the time it had taken to walk across the back yard and into the house, plus however long after the pair had stopped and Anko probably spent trying to talk the blond through the lesson again once they were done. "I... I can try to help, if you want?" she offered quietly.

Naruto grinned for what felt like the first time in days, his bad mood clearing up for the most part. "That would be great Hinata-chan. I'd really appreciate it. Can it wait until after I've had a bath? I kind of reek," the boy admitted sheepishly.

The ex-Hyuuga smiled, nodding, then followed the blond to his room as he went about gathering a change of clothes. "Have you finished packing?"

The boy nodded, digging through his drawers and coming up with a pair of boxers and a tee-shirt. "Yeah, just got some last-minute stuff to do tonight," he nodded, looking around for a clean towel and finding one. "I really don't want to get up so early in the morning. Don't see why 'baachan decided to put off leaving until the last minute. Now we've got to rush to meet up with the clients by day-after-tomorrow."

By the time Naruto finished getting cleaned up, supper had been served and the group talked about the upcoming mission over the meal. As they were finishing up, Naruto created a small group of clones to wash up, one of them gently but firmly pushing Shizune back into her seat from where she'd been about to start the dishes. "The cook shouldn't have to clean too," the boy grinned as they set about clearing the table.

As the group made their way back into the main room, a pair of Narutos came back downstairs carrying several scrolls which they passed out to the others in the group. "What's this?" Tsunade asked, opening her scroll and finding one of the small storage seals inside.

The blond boy responsible simply grinned and watched as the kunoichi of Team Hokage, plus Tenten and Isaribi unsealed the scrolls. Looking up briefly from what looked to be an outfit similar to the one she wore now but with some extra parts and made of a different material, Tenten asked "Is this what I think this is?" Beside the bun-haired girl, Hinata glanced between the new outfit, the grinning blond, and the girl beside her for a moment before applying chakra to the fabric, causing it to disappear. Seeing this, Tenten bit her lip and grinned, forcibly restraining herself from shouting out her excitement.

"What the _fuck_ is that?" Anko asked, pointing in Hinata's general direction.

Between Anko and Tsunade, who were both staring wide-eyed at the spot where Hinata's outfit had once been, Shizune slipped on one of the gloves provided and channeled chakra into it to cause it to disappear before asking, "Naruto-kun, where did you get this?"

"Remember the lizard summoning contract?" the blond asked, getting nods all around. "I took some material over to the guy who did our headbands and got him to make outfits out of it. We've only got one set per person so far, and since we've got that mission in Snow Country coming up we decided to weatherproof and insulate this set and make a few all-purpose sets later."

"So everything here turns invisible when you run chakra through it?" Tsunade asked, eying her first apprentice's gloved and seemingly non-existent hand, only a barely visible distortion left to outline where her hand had once been. Seeing the blond boy nod out of the corner of her eye, she said, "This stuff doesn't leave this group. Ever."

"It's a little too late for that if blondie already took it to the guy in town to get this stuff made," Anko pointed out. "But keeping knowledge of it to a minimum would be good. Can't let people see us using it in public either—that'd cause more problems than having the stuff would solve."

Shizune thought the matter over a bit as she pulled off the glove and resealed the small stack of clothes, making a mental note to pack it with the rest of her gear later. "If we had to use it in front of someone, we could add hand-seals. We could even add some fuuinjutsu to it so that it looks like it's an effect of a seal and not the material itself."

Resealing her own set, Hinata nodded in agreement. "We could try to develop a seal to destroy the material in an emergency."

On the other side of Tenten from Hinata, Isaribi looked up towards Naruto. "Mine are just normal clothes?" she asked, getting a nod. Before the blond could explain, she grinned. "You got me new clothes so I wouldn't feel left out huh?"

Naruto nodded again. "Well that, and you didn't have much to begin with."

"So," Anko cut in, getting the blond boy's attention, "can we trust him to keep his mouth shut?"

"I think so."

"You _think_ so?" Anko asked, narrowing her eyes and mentally preparing herself to have to go slit someone's throat later that night.

Naruto rolled his own eyes at the older woman. "I'm pretty sure, ok? As sure as I can be without keeping a twenty-four hour watch on the place."

"I suppose that's going to have to be good enough," Tsunade said, resealing her own set of clothes. "I think it's time for us to turn in. We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow." There were various noises of agreement from the group as the Sannin stood, popping her back on the way up. "Oh, and Naruto?" she said, getting the boy's attention before pulling him into a hug and tussling his hair affectionately, causing the boy to squirm against her massive bust in an attempt to break free. "Thanks. You did good, for a loud-mouthed brat anyway."

Naruto suffered/enjoyed similar responses to his gifts from the rest of the group before he was finally able to make his way back up to his bedroom, where he found Hinata sitting on his futon waiting patiently for him. "Oh right, we were going to try to practice that thing huh?"

Hinata nodded as the boy sat down cross-legged in front of her after shutting the door. "What exactly was Anko-sensei doing to try to teach you?"

Naruto shrugged. "The first couple of times she tried to hit me to see if I could tell which side it was coming from. After that, she actually started hitting me. She got pretty rough towards the end," he admitted, grinning sheepishly. "I guess I kind of suck."

Hinata shook her head. "It isn't your fault, Naruto-kun," she denied. She gave what he'd said a few moments of thought, absently chewing her bottom lip—and drawing Naruto's attention in doing so, thoughts of just how cute that looked running through his mind until she spoke again. "I have an idea," she said, closing her eyes and holding out both of her hands towards the blond boy, palms facing him. "Try to hit one of my hands."

"Ok," the boy agreed reluctantly. Making a fist, he sent a punch towards her left hand with his right. Just before his fist made contact, she pushed her left hand forward and grasped his fist. "Wow Hinata-chan! You could really tell which one I was aiming at?"

The dark-haired girl nodded. "It's much harder to do though, since you aren't using very much chakra, but it should work just as well as Anko-sensei's method," she said, mentally adding, _'Just without using pain as negative reinforcement should he fail. This method really is harder to learn than simply trying to detect jutsu activation. Even I have difficulty with this, and I already know how to detect chakra...'_

The pair lost track of time as they practiced, Hinata using much more chakra than she felt was really necessary and Naruto steadily failing to detect it. Some time close to midnight, the slightly younger girl yawned. When she saw the blond across from her open his eyes and mimic the action, she nearly smirked before pulling her arms behind her head and popping her back and neck—thrusting her chest out in the process and causing the boy's eyes to widen slightly. Bringing her arms back down, she winced as she felt something pull in her shoulder. "Are you ok?" the boy across from her asked.

"I think I pulled something," Hinata admitted, rolling her shoulder in an attempt to feel out just what hurt and how badly.

"I could..." the blond started but cut off, blushing slightly in embarrassment. Seeing the girl send him a curious look, he shoved the embarrassment aside and stood before moving to sit down behind her. Reaching out, he slowly began to knead her shoulders, drawing a quiet 'eep!' from Hinata. "Sorry, did I hurt you?"

Hinata quickly shook her head, nearly hurting her neck in the process she did it so fast. "No! Not at all. Please, don't stop," she pleaded. _'Naruto-kun is touching me! Willingly, even!'_ She could feel her face heating up at the thought.

"It's easier if you lay down," the blond mumbled, knowing it sounded a little perverted and not wanting to get slapped just for offering to help. He was surprised when Hinata quickly stretched out on his futon and crossed her arms to lay her head on them, turning her head to regard him through one eye—the look she sent him obviously asking for him to continue. He was once again reminded that this girl had never done anything to intentionally hurt him, not counting the occasional spar, and that she had also never really denied him anything he'd ever asked for. She'd never hit him, made fun of him, or even tried to embarrass him in front of other people. In fact, she went out of her way to find ways to help him with pretty much anything she could think of. Putting those thoughts aside for the moment, Naruto set his mind to demonstrating one of the skills he'd started picking up under Anko's tutelage. Quiet, breathy moans and squeaks of girly-bliss filled the room as Hinata thoroughly enjoyed the blond's attention, her eyes half-lidded and a blush adorning her face. If she could purr, she would have.

_'I'm going to need to change my panties after this,'_ the girl thought idly, not minding that thought at all and turning her head away from the boy to hide her leer. Idly, she mused that just a month or so ago such a thought would have sent her spiraling into unconsciousness with a huge nosebleed to show for it. It was probably Anko's influence rubbing off on her, and if Anko rubbing off on her kept her from passing out when she was the least bit intimate with Naruto then that was a price she was perfectly willing to pay. Behind her, Naruto shifted slightly and she felt something briefly press against her thigh. _'Was that...?'_ she wondered, biting her lip as the temptation to take advantage of her bloodline again became almost unbearable. Giving in to temptation, she gasped quietly at what she saw. Luckily for her, the blond simply interpreted it as one more in a near-continuous stream of the breathy little sounds of pleasure that had been frequently escaping from the ex-Hyuuga for the past twenty minutes. _'Naruto-kun is...!'_

Hinata very nearly growled in frustration when the boy eventually stopped lavishing attention on her and stood, cautiously adjusting his boxers as he made his way towards the door. "Bathroom," he called quickly by way of explanation, making his way out of the room towards the upstairs bathroom. "I was so close too," the girl whined quietly, making a mental note to either thank Anko for whatever she had done to get her blond crush as good as he was at that or kill the older kunoichi for getting the boy as good as he was at that and not convincing him it was rude to get a girl's hopes up and then not finish the job. Peering through the walls, she watched as the boy turned on the cold water faucet and splashed his face a few times. "Poor Naruto-kun," she murmured, continuing to watch shamelessly as the boy finally relaxed and went about relieving himself. As he flushed the bowl and went about brushing his teeth, the girl pondered her current location for a moment before smiling and slipping under the futon's covers, turning away from the door and feigning sleep.

When Naruto returned, he found Hinata curled up under the covers of his futon, obviously already asleep. Not wanting to wake the smaller girl as he knew it would probably take a good ten minutes for her to get to her own room and get back to sleep, he debated the merits of hunting down a spare futon to lay out beside his occupied one. Yawning, he was reminded just how late it was and how soon they would have to get up to leave in the morning. _'Well, they do it all the time when we're on the road. I suppose it wouldn't hurt anything. If they thought it was perverted they wouldn't do it in the first place,'_ the boy reasoned, deciding to borrow a page from Kakashi's book—just not the orange-covered one, anyway—and take the lazy option for once. And besides, Hinata was really, _really_ cute and on top of that she actually _liked_ him! No, he reminded himself, if what the others said were true she didn't simply like him. Yawning again, he crawled into his futon beside the sleeping girl, turning away from her and trying to keep a respectable distance.

Beside the boy, Hinata sighed quietly in frustration as she watched him camp the edge of the bedding and quickly fall asleep. Not for the first time, she debated the merits of simply molesting Naruto in his sleep as opposed to waiting for him to come around and show some sign he returned her feelings. Once again, she chose to put off acting on her feelings for later and once she was sure he was asleep, carefully rolled onto her other side and edged up against his back. She smiled as an idea occurred to her and she quickly pulled her tee-shirt up until it sat bunched up under her breasts. Reaching out, she slowly repeated the process with the sleeping blond, exposing his stomach before pressing her bare flesh against his own and sighing in contentment, one arm resting across the boy's stomach and the other sliding under his pillow and neck. Softly kissing the back of the blond boy's neck, she whispered, "However long you need, I'll wait for you to make up your mind. I'll love you, regardless of how long it takes. I just wish you would do it soon. Good night, Naruto-kun." Within moments, the girl was sleeping soundly.

Far too soon for their liking, a hand on Naruto's shoulder shook the blond awake—along with the girl still spooned against his back. Shizune smiled down on the pair, seeing Naruto yawn widely and Hinata narrow her one visible eye in a glare at the older kunoichi for daring to interrupt her Naruto-time. "You've got an hour before Tsunade-sama wants us to be on the road," she whispered, standing and exiting the room quietly, sliding the door closed behind her. By unspoken agreement, both teens shifted closer and simply lazed in bed for another half hour, each enjoying being with the other—Hinata glad for any excuse to spend time like this with her love, even if he didn't openly return her feelings yet, and Naruto simply happy to be close to someone who wouldn't hit him for simply being there.

It was with much reluctance that the pair separated and left the warmth of the futon and each other for the cool fall air in the room to get ready for the day. Looking around for the clothes he'd set out the night before, Naruto caught a glimpse of Hinata—her shirt still bunched under her breasts and everything between there and the top of her panties exposed for him to see, along with her bare legs. Noticing the direction of his gaze, Hinata smiled and slowly pulled the shirt back down, incidentally pulling the shirt tight against her chest and showing off what was either a reaction to the cold or excitement at waking up holding her favorite blond body-pillow. "Good morning, Naruto-kun," she greeted softly, getting a nod and a stammered response from the blushing boy. Acting on impulse, she stepped forward and kissed his cheek, her own blush lighting her face as she quickly made her way from his room towards her own to get dressed.

_'She... she kissed me_!'

After a quick breakfast, the group of ninja bid Isaribi farewell as Naruto summoned a group of toads for the kunoichi and an anole lizard for himself. Leaving behind a few Naruto-clones to keep Isaribi company and to continue working at _The Great Dane_, not to mention to get a good test of just how far they could go and how long the clones would last before they expired, the group set off for the northernmost port of Fire Country.

Some distance away from the group—far enough to avoid detection this time, but close enough to keep visual tabs on them with binoculars—the Root spy occasionally known as Sai forced himself to swallow another soldier pill and followed it with a blood replenishing pill. Ever since escaping that castle-turned-summon, the spy had been trying to recuperate from overusing the pills. Throwing up blood had not been fun at all for the Root operative. Reminding himself once again that all of this was for Danzou-sama—the true Hokage—Sai pulled out a pre-drawn scroll and started to summon the inked creature he had drawn to keep up with Team Hokage. Since it was simply an ink construct, it was limited only by his imagination and chakra capacity. The construct he'd made most recently was fast enough to keep up with the group but very taxing on his chakra reserves—even more so than the ones he'd used to try to tail them up to now. He just hoped they weren't going very far this time.

Biting his thumb, he smeared blood across the scroll, only to drop its shredded remains as a trio of shuriken ripped right through it. Blinking in surprise, he looked up to find a kunoichi in ANBU garb and mask dropping from the trees. To have crept up on him, she would have to be some kind of stealth expert—which kunoichi, especially those that made it into ANBU, were almost unnaturally adept at becoming even if it was not their primary focus. Wasting no time on words, Sai pulled out a pair of scrolls and opened them, sending several large ink tigers flying at his attacker who had drawn a mid-length sword and was charging his position. Nearly to their target, the ink constructs burst into their component liquid, splattering all over the ground. Sai's eyes widened in surprise as his attacker stopped, sheathing her sword. Not that it mattered, as upon looking down Sai discovered nearly two feet of red-stained steel protruding through the front of his ANBU armor. "Wha—" he choked out, bloody froth forming at the corners of his mouth.

The ANBU before him stepped forward slowly, making sure to keep her attention on his body for any sign he would try to mount an attack. Reaching up, she pulled her mask up until it rested atop her purple hair. "I just wanted you to know who killed you before you died," Yuugao said softly, no trace of emotion in her voice or in her body language. To her, this wasn't personal—simply carrying out the orders of the rightful Hokage by eliminating a possible threat to the previous Hokage. Seeing the last of the life slipping out of the boy's features, she murmured, "Your master will be joining you shortly."

Behind the spy, Yuugao removed a hand from the hilt of her sword and placed it on his shoulder, pushing the boy forward while she pulled her blade back with the arm still holding it. When she freed her sword and the corpse hit the ground, she reversed her grip on the hilt before driving the blade down into the base of the Root spy's neck where neck met skull. Satisfied he was dead and no medic would be able to revive him, Yuugao dismissed her kage bunshin and set about the task of cleaning her sword and disposing of the body. After all, it wouldn't do for the group to get back and find that there had been a murder while they were away.

And elsewhere, nine of the ten members of Akatsuki gathered in secret—none of them really there save for the leader and his partner. Zetsu turned to face their leader and spoke. "The Kyuubi-container is on the move. They make for Snow."

Paine nodded before directing his attention towards one of the other members. "Without Konoha to protect him, he is at his most vulnerable. Itachi, you will retrieve the Kyuubi vessel."

The Uchiha in question nodded, his and Kisame's projections dispersing as their minds returned to their bodies. "So, can I cut his legs off this time?" Kisame asked, a huge smirk adorning his face.

Itachi shook his head. "No. We will take him intact."

Kisame rolled his eyes but kept his protests to himself. "Do we follow them to Snow or wait until they get back?"

"We'll wait until they return."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** I think this chapter came out how I wanted it to, though the Akatsuki end left something to be desired in my mind. Word count was about a thousand short of where I wanted it, not counting author's notes. I'm both happy and annoyed with the Naru/Hina scene there, though I can't put my finger on why as to the second part. The Sai/Yuugao scene I had actually intended to do at the beginning of the chapter, or close to it, and have Anko discover the body left on their front steps as a present from Yuugao but I changed my mind at the time of writing. Next chapter I start with the Snow Country arc. Should provide at least three chapters, maybe even four. Well, not counting what else I have in mind, which puts the end of Snow at about... five to six chapters from now by my estimate.

On Anko vs Tsunade: Using their various techniques, Tsunade would beat Anko hands-down unless Anko caught her in a suicide-jutsu. Without them? I think Anko would give Tsunade a run for her money, probably even beat her half the time, since Anko doesn't rely on a strength enhancing technique for her taijutsu. It might be chakra enhanced like pretty much everyone else's taijutsu, but for the most part it's all Anko and not some technique boosting her ability to godly levels. And remember, Anko is Orochimaru's former apprentice. As far as a taijutsu-only ranking scale, I see it something like this. Gai (Gai's taijutsu is awesome on its own. Ignoring the Sannins' experience, I'm pretty sure he'd win though with it it's hard to say), Orochimaru, Jiraiya, Kakashi when he's not being lazy, Lee (though let Lee use the gates and probably only Gai could beat him with just taijutsu at this point in the time line), Tsunade/Anko, Hinata, Shizune, and finally Naruto/Tenten (don't know much about Tenten's taijutsu at the moment, just that she spams weapons). If you don't particularly agree with that: tough, that's the way it is for now.

On kawarimi and shunshin vs eyesight: Kawarimi has two purposes and those are to evade an attack and while doing so distract your enemy long enough to launch your own attack. Just like not everyone without a dojutsu or geared towards taijutsu can't see most high-speed moves (Chidori requires insane speed and a sharingan to see at that speed to really work to its fullest, though I think if Lee knew it and could perform it he could use it as he's used to moving at that speed), they wouldn't be able to see the actually switch from kawarimi or there would be no point in doing something like putting a henge over a log to look like yourself so your enemy thinks you're dead long enough for you to attack. The entire point is _not_ to be seen making the switch. I can see people like Gai, Kakashi, Orochimaru, or anyone with enough training moving and fighting at high speed being able to at least partially see the switch unaided, or at least see through a kawarimi used by someone at a lower level than they are.

Yes, I killed Sai. No, he's not coming back. At this point he's still just a trained dog, not really a person even in his own mind and he chose that willingly. He hasn't had the interaction with what's left of Team Seven to even begin to try to convince him that he's following the wrong master and those events would never take place in this time line. I never liked him that much anyway and Kishimoto has pretty much ignored him and everyone else in Konoha for the last few volumes. And if things keep going as they are, money says Sai goes all self-sacrificial in canon to save Naruto or Sakura—probably from Sasuke—and Kishimoto kills him off anyway. That, or gets possessed by what's left of Orochimaru, but that one's pretty far outside the realm of possibility even for him. Oh, wait... eight tailed _what_?

On a side note: almost doubled the author's notes with a semi-rant on something to do vaguely with the kawarimi that will probably come up later. No, not Naruto's bastardized shunshin/kawarimi hybrid specifically, though that too probably.


	14. On a Slow Boat to Snow

**The Missing Hokage**

**14: On a Slow Boat to Snow Country**

* * *

"They're late."

Looking away from Naruto, who was sitting in front of a fence nearly drooling at a poster for the movie the trio had just seen, Hinata turned her attention towards Tenten. "Perhaps they were held up making travel arrangements?"

Tenten shook her head from where she leaned against the wall of the theater they'd just left. Behind her, someone had painted a large fox's face on the wall some time ago. "No, I get the feeling it's always going to be like this."

Naruto continued to mostly ignore/tune out his two female companions, lost in his own little world of movie-induced blissful stupor. "I wonder if princesses like Fuun-hime really exist..." he murmured quietly. "Any ninja would be satisfied to fight for a princess like that."

Tenten rolled her eyes. "It's just a movie," she said, though secretly she wondered the same thing, just as nearly all girls held a secret wish in their hearts that they could be princesses too.

"I wonder why Tsunade-sama told us to watch this movie before the mission," Hinata mused quietly. She did not wonder if there were princesses in the world, nor did she wish to find out what the experience would be like for herself. She'd had quite enough of that for one lifetime, thank you very much.

Beside the shorter girl, Tenten smirked and said quietly, "Maybe it was to give you some quality alone-time with _Naruto-kun,_" she whispered, perfectly emulating the breathy way the boy's name tended to pass Hinata's lips.

Hinata sent the older kunoichi an exasperated look. "If that were the case, why are you here?" she asked, not particularly annoyed to be forced to share Naruto-time with Tenten but more annoyed because she so rarely found herself alone with the blond in question. Maybe she should just have him start making a clone specifically for her...

"Well, we couldn't just leave you two alone without supervision," the older girl giggled quietly.

The girls' conversation was cut short by the sound of approaching hoof beats. Beside them, Naruto stood and turned his attention towards where the sound seemed to be coming from. A moment later, a white horse carrying a woman dressed in what looked like a teal and pink kimono leaped over the fence at the back of the theater. The horse crashed down on their side of the fence and continued its run down the alleyway beside the movie theater. "F-fuun-hime?!" The blond's amazement at seeing his new favorite character dash by was interrupted by a dozen men on black horses smashing the fence gate open and nearly knocking the trio down in the process. Reaching into his weapon pouches, the blond jumped to the theater roof and gave chase.

"Naruto-kun, wait!" Hinata called, though the blond either didn't hear her or ignored her.

Beside the shorter girl, Tenten sighed. "He really is impulsive. Should we help him?" she asked, getting a nod from Hinata who took off after the boy. Following the ex-Hyuuga, Tenten called, "You know they're just actors, right!"

In front of Tenten, Hinata smiled. "I know, but that doesn't mean we can't have a little fun!"

"You've been hanging around Naruto way too much," Tenten grumbled, though the grin on her face showed she was just as interested in seeing how this played out as Hinata.

A ten-minute chase through crowded streets later found the two kunoichi standing amidst a group of tied up 'bandits,' Tenten idly dusting off her hands. "My, oh my," a voice called in amusement, drawing the pair's attention to Anko, Shizune, and Tsunade. Grinning, Anko idly twirled a kunai around her finger. "Looks like you two have been busy. Where's the other one?"

"What are you doing?" Tsunade grumbled in what would have sounded like embarrassment if the kunoichi of the group didn't know better.

"Just killing time," Tenten grinned playfully, Hinata nodding in agreement.

Shizune rolled her eyes, shifting her grip on Tonton to pull out a kunai and free an older looking long-haired man from the group. "We're really sorry for this," she apologized to him, bowing. Turning her attention back to the younger kunoichi, she said, "This is our client for the mission."

Hinata couldn't fight off the amused smile that broke out over her face. "We know, but it just looked like so much fun..." she trailed off, shrugging.

"We lost Naruto with Fuun-hime a minute or two before we snagged these guys," Tenten answered Anko's earlier question.

"Knowing him, he's getting into trouble," Tsunade murmured, helping to untie the rest of the actors. "Who gets the honors?"

Hinata volunteered before the others could, biting her thumb and sealing. Slapping her palms down onto the ground, she concentrated on summoning a specific animal. "Inu kuchiyose no jutsu!"

A small cloud of smoke and chakra preceded the arrival of a large dog, its fur a dark shade of blue with a few black patches. "What's up?" the great dane known as Coe asked, regarding the group and coming up two short in a quick head-count. The fox-boy and the fish-girl were absent, apparently.

"Can you find Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked, getting a nod from the dog as he scented the air and took off at a trot in the direction the scent trail lead. That was the reason Hinata had summoned this specific dog, as Coe already knew the blond's scent.

Just out of the west side of town, the Princess Fuun lookalike sat on the bank of a lake, her arms clutching her knees to her chest as she stared out over the water. Beside her, the horse that had carried her drank quietly. The woman's momentary respite was shattered by a boy's voice from off to her left. "Are you hurt, Hime?" Cool blue eyes under dark bangs turned to regard the orange-and-black clad blond that had disturbed her. "Oh wow nee-chan, you really are Fuun-hime! I was so moved when I watched your movie," the blond proclaimed loudly, not seeming to notice when the woman stood and mounted her horse again. He did notice, however, when she nearly ran him down. Jumping to the side, Naruto caught himself on the surface of the lake and glared at the woman. "What's her problem?" he wondered, his good mood turning somewhat sour at the brushoff.

Shaking off that train of thought, he took off running after the horse. Drawing alongside her, he opened his mouth to ask where she was going when she swatted her horse and urged it to run faster. Faced with the second brushoff from this woman in the past five minutes, Naruto narrowed his eyes in annoyance. Once upon a time, he probably would have continued to chase after her babbling on about how much he looked up to her and how inspired he'd felt seeing her on-screen, probably tossing in a declaration or two of his intent to become Hokage for good measure. Now though? He could honestly say her attitude pissed him off. His days of mindless hero-worship were over. Fine, if she wanted to try to ignore him like nearly everyone else he'd ever met then he'd _make_ her acknowledge him. Pushing himself to run faster, he hopped up onto the back of her horse and turned up the annoyance-factor to full. "Hey nee-chan, you're really good at riding. As expected from Fire Country's most famous actress!" he shouted in her ear, nearly startling her off the horse. Feeling her slip a bit in the saddle, he wrapped his arms around her lower waist and held on tightly.

The princess turned her head enough to regard the blond behind her, blue eyes narrowed in annoyance at being felt-up by some kid—even if he _had_ kept her from falling on her ass. Urging the horse faster, she made for the first busy street in town she saw, intent on trying to knock the kid off. The pair drew more than a few stares coming back into town. Distracted by trying to weave around people in the street, she felt something snag the sleeve of her dress and rip it off. "Hey nee-chan, don't you think you're going a bit too fast?" the blond behind her asked, which only convinced her to go faster. Coming around a soft corner, Naruto spotted several children step out into the main street from a smaller side-street. Not feeling the princess trying to slow them down one bit, Naruto jumped off the horse to the side.

Halfway to the ground, Naruto activated the bastardized shunshin/kawarimi he'd learned from Anko, jumping from beside the horse to just in front of the kids, facing the oncoming princess. _'I really didn't want to have to do this,'_ the boy thought idly. Focusing on the horse, he channeled just enough of Kyuubi's chakra to start pouring off the fox's killing intent. Ever since he was little, he had always spooked animals any time he'd gotten angry—now he knew why, at least. "Stop!"

On the horse, the princess felt a wave of _something_ wash over the entire street. It hit her and the horse both like a physical blow, sending the horse rearing upwards and nearly stopping her heart in fright. The last she saw of the boy before she felt herself falling were his eyes—where once they had been a slightly lighter shade of blue than her own, they were now red and slitted. She didn't see the boy move or notice the killing intent disperse as quickly as it had come, but instead of a violent landing with the ground she found herself caught mostly upright in the blond's surprisingly strong arms. After steadying herself, she straightened up and pushed the boy off of her. "What do you want?" she asked the boy quietly.

Whatever the blond had been about to say was drowned out by the excited cries of the children he'd kept from being trampled. "It's Fuun-hime!"

The actress forced herself not to let her annoyance show on her face, though it still came through in her voice. "I am not Princess Fuun."

"I know, you're the actress Fujikaze Yukie. I'm a fan of yours!" the brown-haired girl of the group called excitedly, pulling off her backpack and quickly unzipping it. She pulled out a notebook and a pen and held them up towards the actress. "Sign, sign!"

"I don't give autographs," Yukie denied, not bothering to keep up her usual calm facade now. If she didn't get away from these brats soon, she was going to go crazy! And especially the blond one. Reminded of the boy, she looked around and saw him sitting off to the side, the look of annoyance on his face mirroring his own. His eyes, thankfully, were back to their normal shade of blue. Now that she looked closer though, she could see three faint lines on both cheeks. That, along with the mischief and intelligence she'd seen in those eyes at first and later the weird red animal eyes combined to create an effect that reminded her strongly of a fox. _'So, you're not going to ask for one?'_

"You're an actress, you have to give us an autograph!" one of the kids yelled.

Yukie had had enough. "Cut it out!" she yelled, shutting the small crowd of children up instantly. "What's so fun about getting an autograph? Eventually you'll just put it away somewhere for it to collect dust. It doesn't serve any purpose." Seeing that she'd made her point, she added quietly, "It's stupid," before pushing past the children and taking off in a run down the street away from them and the blond with the strange eyes.

"Just because she's made it big doesn't mean she can be bitchy," one of the adults who'd gathered upon hearing the ruckus grumbled.

Just after dark, Yukie walked out of a clothes store, having traded her torn kimono for a khaki-colored long coat over a pink blouse and a black skirt. A pair of red sunglasses and a brown and purple hat topped off the new wardrobe change. Looking around, she took off slowly up the street, careful to keep an eye out for the blond. Ever since leaving him sitting there with those brats she'd felt eyes on her, following her every move. Again getting the feeling she was being watched, she nonchalantly pulled out a compact mirror/makeup kit and checked behind her. The street was mostly empty behind her, save for some people headed in the opposite direction and a girl directly behind her. Looking more closely at the girl, she narrowed her eyes.

The girl wore a black knee-length skirt, a red men's tee-shirt with a black spiral in the center, and a simple pair of blue sandals on her feet. The girl's figure was well proportioned and her hair was done up in long twin blonde pigtails over a cute face. The face drew her attention though. Even in the dim twilight, she could make out six faint lines on the girl's cheeks—three to either side—under a pair of bright blue eyes that radiated mischief. The blonde winked at her. Yukie took off running down the first side street she came to. Coming to an intersection, she hung a left and stopped to catch her breath. Turning her head to look behind her, she found the blond girl standing in the intersection, hands under her pigtails against the back of her head (incidentally showing off that she wore no undergarments under the shirt) and not even looking winded. Yukie took off running again, making several twists and turns through progressively narrower back streets and alleys. Every time she looked back, she found the blond girl standing there with that annoying foxy grin on her face. Nearly stumbling, she hung a right and found herself in a dead end. Movement from above drew her attention to the blond girl... hanging upside down from a wooden beam in what appeared to be a storage area for construction materials. Against her will, Yukie gave a short scream of fright and backed away from the blond quickly, stumbling and falling on her rear.

"What are you?" she asked of the girl, struggling to catch her breath.

One hand holding the her skirt down—or up, rather, as she was upside down—the blond grinned and scratched at the back of her head with the other hand, causing her dangling pigtails to sway. "A ninja," she giggled, and if Yukie didn't _know_ that it was the same boy from before somehow disguised as a girl—and a very good disguise it was!—she would have sworn the girl before her was genuine.

"How did you keep finding me?"

Naruto—or Naruko, rather, as the blond had taken to calling his oiroke transformation—simply grinned wider. "Nee-chan, you smell nice," she teased. "But it helped not losing you to begin with." The older woman sighed, drawing his/her attention to something sparkling at her neck, partially hidden by her shirt. There, tied to a length of black cord, hung a violet crystal. Her attention focused on it now, she could swear she heard... something soft resonating from the crystal. Her eyes widened involuntarily, drawn in by it as the colors shifted slightly.

Naruko/Naruto paid dearly for her lapse in attention as Yukie turned her head to the side and reached up to her earring and sprayed a red liquid into the blond's face. Recoiling in pain, the blond screeched, "What is that?!"

"Pervert repellent," Yukie smirked, standing and thoroughly enjoying the sight of the blond... cross dresser? writhing in pain. Her expression didn't change, even as the blond fell over backwards and knocked the support beam out from under several hundred pounds of lumber, burying the girl in the rubble. Stuffing her hands into her jacket pockets, Yukie turned and left the alley. As she made her way out of the back alleys and side streets of town, she couldn't shake the feeling that she'd missed something and that she was still being followed. Shrugging it off, she found the main street and made her way towards a bar.

Above and behind the wayward actress, Naruto winced in sympathetic pain at the memory he'd received from that particular clone. Sighing, he made his way across the rooftops, careful to keep his footsteps as quiet as possible. Even if he couldn't be seen, the woman below had already proven she was more aware of her surroundings than a typical civilian. Following Yukie to a bar across town, the blond frowned as she made her way inside. Creating a pair of clones, he had one move to keep a watch on the front door and the other watch the back door in case she decided to try to slip past him again. Looking around to make certain no one could see him, the blond stopped channeling chakra to his clothes and sighed in relief as he tossed back the hood of his cloak and pulled down the attached face and head mask. _'Man this stuff is hot,'_ he mentally whined, though the knowledge that it _was_ cold-weather gear for Snow Country and not for ordinary wear kept him from sending a clone straight back to Otafuku Gai to tell Dane to forget the whole invisible clothes thing if they were going to be this hot.

Quickly stripping out of the cloak and pants he'd thrown on over his regular clothes, the blond resealed the special clothes and checked with the clones to make sure nothing had happened. Once he was sure she hadn't tried to leave, Naruto activated a slightly modified version of the same henge he'd used earlier, changing back into Naruko—only this time she was taller, slightly bustier, and looked to be in her early twenties. The blond landed lightly on her feet as she dropped down from the roof, after checking to make sure no one was around to see. Satisfied she hadn't been seen, Naruko made her way into the bar. Spotting Yukie sitting on a stool, she decided to have some fun with the older woman. She sidled over to the partially drunk actress, draping her body across the back of the woman's chair and hanging mostly off the actress's left side—coincidentally stopping an attempt by one of the bar patrons to palm the crystal that the woman had taken off and left sitting on the counter. "Did you miss me?"

Yukie jumped in her seat, choking on her sake as she turned to regard the now much older-looking pigtailed blond in fright. "What the _hell_ are you?" the woman breathed, sure s/he would have at least been unconscious for several hours after getting buried by all those building materials in the alley. And yet, here s/he stood—or leaned, rather, and did it surprisingly well for someone only pretending to be a girl—with not a scratch on him/her.

"I told you before, _I'm a ninja_," the girl grinned.

Snorting in annoyance, Yukie threw her necklace back around her neck and pulled her hair out from under it. Snagging her empty cup and the bottle of sake, she refilled the cup and downed it in a single swallow before refilling it again. "You're really weirding me out with that," she murmured, gesturing vaguely towards the blond to indicate his/her disguise. She blinked when her hand went too far and smacked the blond on the left breast. Frowning, Yukie poked it to make sure it was real. It was. "_Really_ weirding me out."

"And you've broken this girl's pure heart," the girl sniggered. "It doesn't matter how great an actress you are, I'll never forgive you!"

Swallowing her cup of sake, Yukie's eyes slid over to the blond as a strange look came over her face. "Actress?" she asked, her tone giving the blond a weird vibe. "Great?" The woman actually laughed, then went on to again refill her cup. "How stupid," she said quietly, placing the bottle back down with more force than necessary. "Being an actress is the worst job ever. It's a job for the worst people."

Naruko backed off from beside the woman, slowly edging the stool next to the actress closer and taking a seat on it. "Hm?" she asked, her eyes widening slight as she saw the woman under the mask for the first time. _'She sounds just like me.'_

"You have to follow other people's scripts, act, and live in a world filled with lies," Yukie gave a brief half-laugh half-hiccup before continuing. "Truly stupid."

"Nee-chan, I think you've had enough," she blond said quietly, reaching over to try to take the bottle from the older woman.

Yukie turned and shot the ninja a glare. "You're annoying, just hurry up and disappear!"

Before Yukie could continue, the door to the bar slid open and the older man that had put in the mission request rushed in, followed closely by Team Hokage. "Yukie-sama! The ship to Snow Country is departing soon! We'd better hurry or else..."

"It's ok," the actress slurred slightly, picking up her cup and sipping from it before continuing. "_Fuun-hime_ isn't going to board."

"What?" Tenten asked, raising an eyebrow at the woman before turning her attention to Naruko. Looking the blond up and down, she resisted the urge to leer. _'Nice henge.'_

Beside the younger kunoichi, Anko did voice her thoughts, looking over Naruko's form. "Nice henge, blondie. I'd definitely pick you up, if I were into blondes."

"What are you saying?!" Yukie's manager yelled, shutting up the cross-chatter from Anko, his hands slamming down on the bar beside the inebriated actress.

Yukie turned to give him her full attention. "It happens all the time," she dismissed, waving her cup for emphasis. "Something goes wrong, the main character gets replaced, the director gets replaced..."

"Be quiet!" the manager yelled, getting in her face and causing her to draw back slightly. "The part of Princess Fuun can only be played by you!" Seeing that Yukie's only response was to slurp down the rest of her drink, he continued in a lower voice. "And if you aren't going to come, you aren't going to be able to work in this business again."

"It's alright. It doesn't matter."

"Yukie-sama," the old manager sighed in defeat.

Behind them, Tsunade grunted in annoyance. "That's about enough out of you."

"Eh?" Yukie murmured, turning to regard the Sannin as the older kunoichi reached forward, a single finger lit by a faint green glow. Yukie crossed her eyes as the Sannin's finger touched her forehead. Yukie blacked out and fell forward into the woman's waiting arms. Around them, the rest of Team Hokage looked on, looks of disgust and disappointment plainly visible on their faces—especially on Naruto's, who had just dropped his henge.

"Come on, we've got a boat to catch," Tsunade said, slinging the princess up onto her shoulder in a fireman's carry and carrying her effortlessly from the bar. _'Is this how I act when I've had too much to drink?'_ the Sannin wondered, the thought almost making her want to stop indulging in her second-favorite vice.

* * *

Yukie dreamed.

A small girl with dark blue hair, no older than six or seven, padded softly across a hardwood floor connecting two portions of their home. "Father? Father, where are you?" she called, her breath fogging in the cold air, snow falling all around her. A dim light from ahead illuminated the familiar form of her father and the young Koyuki hurried in out of the cold. "Father?"

The hunched form of her father turned, smiling at her and beckoning her forward. Koyuki looked around in confusion and a little wonder at the circular array of mirrors her father was working on, wires trailing from one mirror to the next and all of them intersecting at the glowing piece of technology at his side. "That's it. Stand right there," he said, stopping her as she came into the center of the mirror circle. "What can you see there?"

"Father and me," the girl answered, gazing into the closest mirror.

"Look carefully. You will be able to see your future."

Visions passed before her mind's eye: fire, an older version of herself falling and smashing through the surface of a body of water, and then darkness.

The sound of water against wood was the first thing that registered as she returned to consciousness, followed immediately by a pounding in her head in time with the water-against-wood sound. Cracking open her eyes, Yukie internally cursed whoever had left the shades covering the windows open. Raising her arm to shield her eyes, she noticed she she was only wearing the thin yellow garment she'd had on under her clothes the previous night. Someone had undressed her. Sighing, she started to sit up slowly as a knock sounded at the door to her room. _'Why is the world swaying? Did I really get that drunk?'_

"Are you awake, Yukie-sama?" the voice of her manager called through her door.

Bringing her hand to her forehead, Yukie groaned quietly in pain. "Sandaiyuu, can you bring me water? My head feels like it's spinning. I think I may be hallucinating, but it feels like I'm swaying."

"It is not your imagination."

"Eh?" Yukie asked, looking up from her misery and actually looking around at her surroundings. Her eyes widening in panic, she raced to her door, out it, and through a short hall towards another door which she threw open. Looking around, she gasped in shock. "What the hell is this?!" she yelled, looking over the deck of the ship she'd found herself on.

Some time later, Team Hokage found themselves crowded into a corner against the railing on the deck, trying to stay out of the way of both the ship's crew and the film crew. "I really don't like that nee-chan," Naruto grumbled from his position between Hinata and Tenten.

"Well, regardless of that, whatever happens we have to protect her," Tsunade pointed out, though silently she agreed with the blond. Sighing, she pulled the wide-brimmed 'Hokage' hat further down her head to give her eyes more shade as she looked out across the desk at the actress in question. Even now Yukie simply sulked almost lifelessly across the deck from them as her aids went about applying her makeup.

"Are you sure this thing's A-Rank?" Anko asked, suddenly finding herself wishing for a carton of dango. It seemed the cravings always hit when she couldn't possibly get any. Just like when she was craving some action, apparently.

"It shouldn't be that hard to protect a single actress," Tenten pointed out, wondering at the ranking. B-Rank she could understand, maybe even C if they weren't expecting anything other than a few civilian kidnapping attempts. A-Rank implied the threat of ninja combat.

"Famous people are always targeted," Shizune shrugged, squeezing Tonton closer to her chest, though she nodded agreement with the girl's unspoken question. "We don't really know what sort of enemies to expect."

A commotion from across the deck of the ship drew the group's attention to where the crew had started filming. Watching the actress, Naruto rolled his eyes. "That's totally different from how she acts in real life," he deadpanned.

Beside the blond, Sandaiyuu spoke up, not catching the tone of the blond's voice. "That's Yukie-sama. As soon as the camera starts rolling, there isn't anyone who can act like her."

"Ok, stop," Yukie called from across the deck before waving to Sandaiyuu for the eye-drops.

As filming resumed, Anko snorted at the actress's cry of 'Shishimaru!' and rolled her eyes. "Disgusting," she grumbled, getting nods and sounds of agreement from all of Team Hokage.

As the sun went down and Team Hokage followed the film crew and cast inside, one of the deck hands stopped Tsunade at the door. "Word from the radio room is the storm that's blown up in the south-east has accelerated. We thought we'd be able to outrun it, or at least make port before it hit us, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen. You should keep your group and the civilians below deck tonight and tomorrow, at least until it blows over."

Thanking the crewman, Tsunade made her way below deck and relayed the news to Sandaiyuu and Team Hokage. "We're in for a storm. Stay below deck unless you absolutely have to go topside," Tsunade announced, finding Team Hokage sitting around their shared room and speaking with the actress' manager. Due to the fact that the ship was nearly overloaded with passengers—the film crew, the movie cast, and Team Hokage—they were short on rooms and the group had decided to simply share a single room. It was a tight fit come time to discuss sleeping arrangements, but they managed.

"You mean I have to stay cooped up inside? It's bad enough we're stuck on another boat, but stuck inside too?" Naruto whined, already feeling what passed for claustrophobia with him setting in.

Turning her attention to the smaller blond, Tsunade grinned. Naruto did not like the look on the woman's face one bit. "Well, since you're bored I have the perfect job for you," she teased, waiting until he got his hopes up... ah, there it was. Seeing the little bit of hope for some excitement in his eyes, she pounced on it. "You've got Hime-duty."

Naruto collapsed to the deck, face meeting the floor violently. Springing back up, he pointed at the former Hokage, yelling, "WHAT?! You want me to babysit that crazy-woman? Are you out of your mind?"

"But the two of you get along so well," Anko smirked, thoroughly enjoying the show.

"I don't even have to ask, I _know_ you're out of your right mind," the blond grumbled at the kunoichi, who stuck her tongue out at the comment but didn't deny it. "Wouldn't one of you be better for that, since—you know—you're girls?"

Near the blond, Shizune bristled. "Are you implying something with that statement, Naruto-kun?"

The blond nodded, either not sensing the impending danger or outright ignoring it. "Actually, yes. You're girls. She's a girl. It makes sense that you'd have a better chance of understanding her than I would!"

"I don't know, I mean you were doing pretty good job of being a girl last night," Tenten snickered.

Hinata nodded in agreement. "And she does seem to tolerate you the most out of any of us."

Feeling ganged up on, the blond asked, "What do you mean, 'tolerates me best?' She can't stand me, and the feeling's mutual!"

The girls shared a collective eye-roll. Finally, Tsunade decided to break this up before it could go any further. "Well, I don't particularly care if you two get along or not. In fact, if you go out of your way to piss each other off that's fine by me, so long as she's safe all the way to where we're going in Snow Country. Now, get to it brat."

Grumbling in annoyance, Naruto dug through his travel bag for a moment before pulling out a scroll. Opening it halfway, he unsealed a black book and tucked it under his arm. "Fine, but if I wind up driving her the rest of the way off the deep end, it's your fault."

Eying the book, Tsunade nodded. "That's fine. I want that back when you're done with it. And don't go through my stuff!" Watching the blond toss a negligent wave over his shoulder as he walked out, Tsunade sighed in exasperation before closing the door behind him and turning to regard the group of younger kunoichi. "What are your thoughts on our charge?" she asked, sitting down near Shizune.

Anko snorted, leaning back against the wall of the cabin they shared. "She needs to get over whatever's bothering her and grow the fuck up."

Shizune nodded, idly petting the pig in her lap. "I agree. Her immaturity could cause problems for us later, if we don't watch her carefully." Debating whether or not to continue, she looked to her mentor for a moment before deciding it needed to be said. "She seems to have both the best and worst qualities of both Naruto-kun and yourself, Tsunade-sama." Seeing the Sannin raise an eyebrow in question, Shizune continued. "She inspires people effortlessly, but saves none of it for herself. She's listless—much as you were before Jiraiya-sama and Naruto-kun found us and brought us to Konoha—and lacks any real motivation or determination to do anything with herself."

"What do you think Naruto's chances are of getting through to her?" Tsunade asked, for the most part agreeing with Shizune's assessment.

"Honestly?" Anko asked, getting a nod from Tsunade. "Before we left Konoha, I'd say no problem. He convinced you to get off your ass and do something after all. Now though? I don't know. He's not such an obnoxious brat any more, so I don't know if he's actually stubborn enough to stick with it any more."

Hinata shook her head. "You shouldn't doubt Naruto-kun. It's true that he has done much growing up in the short time we've been away from Konoha, but Naruto is still Naruto. We've all seen it. He has the power to change people for the better—to force them to see the good in themselves. Once he sets his mind to something, he will not stop until he succeeds or dies trying."

Tsunade nodded in agreement, a mixed look of irritation, exasperation, and affection towards the blond in question crossing her face. "I think you're right."

"Something about this mission has been bothering me for a while now," Tenten pointed out, drawing the group's attention. "It's ranked higher than I think it should be, for a simple escort mission." Seeing nods from the older kunoichi, she asked, "So what are we in for?"

"We don't know," Shizune admitted. "Tsunade-shishou planned to let things just play out, but after observing the way Sandaiyuu-san and Yukie-san interact we should confront them. That isn't simply devotion to one's charge or even adoration and respect for a famous actress. It's a level of devotion at the same depth as my own to Tsunade-sama."

"So, you think _Hime-chan_ really is some kind of princess?" Anko asked, eyebrows raised in curiosity. Seeing Shizune shrug, she asked, "So, what are we going to do if we find out they've been lying to us and we're in for a shitload of trouble when we hit shore?"

"I don't think we should abandon the mission, if that's what you're asking," Tsunade answered. "I believe we should carry out the mission regardless and when all is said and done, if we come into contact with enemy ninja above chuunin level we re-class it as an S-Rank and charge them for the difference."

"And if they refuse to pay?" Tenten asked. She'd honestly never thought about what happened when a village had to up the ranking on a mission and the client disagreed.

Tsunade shrugged. "We'll burn that bridge when we get to it."

"Hopefully _after_ we're across it," Shizune murmured, knowing very well her master's penchant for lighting the bridge on fire first and _then_ trying to run across.

"I wonder how Naruto-kun is doing with Yukie-san," Hinata murmured, drawing knowing looks from the other females.

"Probably pissing her off pretty good right about now," Anko supplied. "Their personalities do clash for the most part. Naruto can be downright grating on the nerves when he wants to be, and Hime-chan's attitude probably reminds him a bit of the damn Uchiha and grates on his own nerves. That'll make him try that just much harder to set her off and make her try harder to ignore him. It's a vicious cycle."

"This likely won't end well," Shizune murmured in agreement.

"On a lighter note... So, how is he in bed?" Tenten asked, shooting the ex-Hyuuga a leer. The three older kunoichi perked up at that question, each sending Hinata a disbelieving look. She couldn't _possibly_ have done that yet, could she...?

Unexpectedly, the younger girl didn't so much as bat an eye. "I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about."

"Bull," the weapon-mistress snorted. "My room's on the other side of his from yours and the walls are pretty thin. I _heard_ the two of you going at it in there the other night. You're actually pretty vocal once you get going, you know? You kept me up most of the night," the girl grumbled the last part out, though she was only complaining to keep up appearances. After all, she'd enjoyed listening almost as much as it sounded like Hinata enjoyed whatever it was the blond had been doing to her.

"It's always the quiet ones," Anko supplied, shooting the girl a leer of her own. "I mean, if I could see through walls and stuff I'd almost never stop using those eyes." Internally, the special-jonin nearly giggled. _Nearly_, but not quite. ...Ok, maybe just a little. Seeing her plans starting to come to fruition gave her a warm, tingly feeling all over.

Hinata's calm facade cracked slightly as the corners of her lips turned up in a tiny smile. "Whatever do you mean by that?" she asked innocently, earning an eye-roll from Anko for her trouble.

"Can't say I'm surprised if it's true," Tsunade shrugged, grumbling, "Well, at least someone's getting laid," though the smile on her face showed she didn't disapprove. It had just been a very long time since Tsunade had last shared a bed with a man—or a woman, for that matter. Actually sharing a bed with Shizune for the sole purpose of sleep did not count at all. She grinned absently as the group of kunoichi settled into a session of unabashed girl-talk, most of it centered around their male team-mate.

Several cabins down in the ship, Uzumaki Naruto sneezed violently for the third time in the last few minutes. "Keep your germs to yourself," Yukie called in annoyance from where she sat on her bed with her knees tucked into her chest and her arms curled around them to hold them in place, eying the blond warily.

Naruto ignored her, burying his nose in the black book he'd liberated from Tsunade's pilfered stash from Konoha. He had started at the first date entered and was working his way through Shodai's entries towards the present. Some of the things they had done to found Konoha... Naruto unconsciously shuddered. For instance, one of the slightly more tame secrets held within the book was that the Uchiha clan had requested and been granted liberty to murder pretty much anyone within the village walls without reprisal—but only at one murder per member of that clan with a functioning Sharingan. Naruto assumed that the law had been repealed some time shortly before the Old Man had taken office, but it wouldn't surprise him if it were still in effect today. He had to wonder though, why would the Uchiha need a law that let them kill whoever they want within the village so long as the person who did so only did it once, and why would the higher-ups of Konoha allow such a thing?

Growing irritated with the blond sitting on the floor beside the door to her cabin, Yukie stood and began disrobing from the kimono she'd been forced into earlier. "I'm getting changed, leave," she ordered, watching him out of the corner of her eye for a reaction. When the boy didn't so much as look up, she asked, "Didn't you hear me? I'm going to change clothes. Leave, you little pervert. If someone has to babysit me, send one of those girls instead.

Naruto still didn't even bother looking up. "I'm not a pervert," the boy denied distractedly, not even bothering to put any effort into the denial as we would if one of their group were accusing him of such. "They sent me, so deal with it. I ain't leaving. Besides, you don't have anything I haven't seen before."

_That_ comment set her off. "What?!" the woman growled.

A foxy smirk plastering itself across the boy's face, he seallessly applied the young-Naruko henge he'd used the previous night. Sparing a moment to look up at the woman across from her, Naruko took one hand off the book she held and used it to raise her tee-shirt, exposing her shapely breasts to the other woman for a moment before putting the shirt back down and going back to reading. "See? Just us girls here," she snickered, eyes narrowing in mirth.

Yukie gave an exasperated huff of frustration before deciding to ignore the blond and swiftly changing into her sleep wear. "I'm going to sleep now. If you wake me up, I'll kill you."

Naruko leered up at the older woman. "Pleasant dreams," she said sweetly, sending a disturbed shudder down Yukie's spine.

"That's not natural," the actress muttered, pulling the sheets up around her and trying to sleep.

Some time later that night, Naruto—who had dropped the Naruko-henge for the moment—heard the sound of wind and rain picking up on the other side of the ship's hull. Standing, he tucked the book under his arm before creating a clone, which took the seat he'd been in a moment ago and reapplied the Naruko-henge before going back to reading the cloned copy of the book. Naruto quietly left the room, sliding the door closed behind himself and heading for the room he shared with the other members of Team Hokage. Opening the door, he heard the kunoichi go silent and they all shot him a look that said they suspected him of spying on them from outside. "What?"

"Why aren't you with Yukie?" Tsunade asked, narrowing her eyes at him in suspicion.

Leaning against the still-open door frame, Naruto grinned. "I am." Behind and down the hall from the blond, one of the crewmen opened the hatch leading outside, letting a gust of cold wind and rain blow through the corridor. "Sounds pretty bad out there. How long did you say this stuff was supposed to last?"

Tsunade sighed. "It should let up some time late tomorrow."

Outside, lightening struck the water close to the ship, the thunder that followed sounding impossibly loud. In her lap, Tonton panicked and struggled free of Shizune's grasp, running for the door. "Quick, grab her!" Tsunade's first apprentice called, panicking slightly.

Somehow, the small pig slipped past the two kunoichi between her and the door—Shizune and Tsunade—and made it between Naruto's legs and into the corridor before the blond realized what was happening. Spinning for the corridor, Naruto tossed the book towards Tsunade. "I've got her!" the blond called, shooting off down the hallway after the pig, not hearing Hinata's startled cry asking him to wait for them.

Naruto caught up with the piglet just outside the hatch, scooping her up in his arms as she ship rolled under the choppy sea. "I hate boats so much," the blond complained, starting back towards the door. He caught sight of Hinata just inside the door, huddled out of the rain. Apparently the others had opted to let Naruto and Hinata handle it. They were both trained chuunin, after all, and capable of taking care of themselves. "Told you I had her," he called out over the roar of the wind lashing through the rigging and the sound of the sea pounding against the hull. He blinked in surprise as Hinata's eyes widened and she pointed behind him.

"Look out!"

The blond ducked, nearly getting smashed by the service crane that had come unsecured, the arm of it swinging out across the deck. The blond grinned, walking back towards the door as the kunoichi started to move back inside to make way for the blond to enter. "What? I saw it coming a mile away," he snickered. A moment later, the crane finished its rotation and smashed into the side of the blond's head, sending a splatter of blood spraying across Hinata as the boy dropped the pet pig and was sent flying into the dark water.

"Tsunade-sama!" Hinata yelled, shoving the pig inside and activating her Byakugan as she tried to find Naruto. She was reminded of the incident where they'd lost the boy under similar circumstances on their way to the mission in Sea Country. _'Naruto-kun seems to have terrible luck with boats,'_ the idle thought flickered across her mind before she dismissed it and searched for the blond. She found him on the edge of her range, drifting away from the boat face-down in the water, his chakra shining like a beacon in the dark. Grabbing the railing, she prepared to jump overboard and attempt to run out and grab the blond when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't!" Tsunade called as the other kunoichi gathered behind and beside Hinata, all of them getting soaked to the bone in the downpour. "It's too choppy for you to try water walking," the Sannin explained. "Where is he?" she asked.

Hinata pointed in the blond's direction, her eyes narrowing as she focused. "I can just barely make him out. He's leaving my Byakugan's range, you have to hurry," the girl implored.

Nodding, Tsunade grabbed a length of rope sitting coiled on the deck and looped an end of it around the railing before jumping off the side of the ship and taking off across the water towards where Hinata had indicated the younger blond to be. What she'd told Hinata about the sea being too rough for her to try water walking was true—it took an insane amount of control to even walk across moving water, let alone run. To be able to run across water made even choppier by wind and rain and waves took a level of control that very few people below the level of jonin possessed and the in the middle of a storm on rough seas with someone's life on the line was not the time to try to learn.

A short search for the smaller blond yielded no results, even when Tsunade tried tracking him by his chakra. Hurrying back to the ship, she ascended to the deck and asked Hinata if she could still see the blond. Getting a tearful negative in answer, she frowned. _'Why does this shit always seem to happen to Naruto?'_ the Sannin wondered before remembering something the boy had said just before running off after her wayward pet. "He said he left a clone with Yukie-san. Maybe it can find him," she supplied over the noise.

Hinata was inside and running down the corridors before the seventh word had even left Tsunade's mouth. Slamming open the door to Yukie's room, she looked around and found Naruko sitting on the ground beside the door. Nearly collapsing, she jumped on the blonde, throwing her arms around the taller girl. "You're still here!"

Naruko blinked. "Of course I'm still here. Where else would I be?" the girl asked, confused. "What happened Hinata-chan? Your clothes are soaked."

"You fell overboard," Anko supplied from the door, looking equally drenched.

On the other side of the room, Yukie had woken up and was listening to the conversation. She became gradually aware of a dull nagging sensation as the blonde girl tried to comfort her smaller teammate. There was no way she could be worried about the little annoyance. Besides, s/he was sitting right there!

"So you want me to try to find me?" the clone asked, getting nods from the assembled kunoichi. Naruko shook her head. "I can make some more clones and send them out, but one of me should stay here just in case. I mean, it's not like we've got some way of knowing where the original me is at unless I create a clone and disperse it so everyone knows."

_'That's not really him? It's some kind of copy?'_ wondered the actress, that nagging sensation growing slightly.

Behind the other kunoichi, Tsunade announced, "I've informed the captain. He says there's nothing he can do until this mess blows over, so if we're going to do something now, we'll have to do it ourselves. That's the bad news. The good news is that the current's running back towards the mainland. The navigator guesses that based on our present location and the way the current is moving, if we can't find him and Naruto winds up drifting, he'll wash up around Wave. Once the storm blows over, they'll turn the ship around and head back towards port."

"Didn't something like this happen in Sea Country?" Anko mused as the Naruto-clone on the ground separated from Hinata long enough to create a dozen more clones and send them running past the kunoichi and outside to perform their own search. The one thing Tsunade had neglected to mention, probably because it only really applied to Naruto, was that one could overcome the control requirement for walking on choppy water with enough chakra output—which Naruto had in spades. Once the clones were out the door, Hinata latched onto the blond girl again and refused to let go—not that Naruko was going to complain at all.

On the ground, Naruko nodded, scratching the back of her head in embarrassment. "Yeah, I sort of have crappy luck with boats I guess. There was that thing with Zabuza and Haku after my first boat ride, then the thing in Sea Country, and now this. It's like somebody has it out for me."

"I'm surprised you're still here though," Shizune said, drawing the boy-turned-girl's attention. "I mean, usually when the original is unconscious the clones disperse."

Naruko shrugged. "It used to happen all the time. It wouldn't even take that really, all it took was a good hit to the original and the rest of us would go poof. I guess I've just gotten better at it."

"How can you all be so calm about this?" Hinata wailed quietly from where her face was buried in the slightly-taller girl's bust. It wasn't even disconcerting to her any more that the blond occasionally spent as much time in Naruko-form as in his normal form. Naruto was Naruto to her, regardless of the plumbing. And there were certainly some plumbing changes when the blond used that particular jutsu, as they'd all found out firsthand. "Naruto-kun could drown, or succumb to hypothermia, or..." she murmured, but quieted down when the blond under her stroked her hair softly and shushed her.

"I think I'd know it if I were dying," biting her lip, the blond tried to explain. "There isn't much of a link between clone and creator from what I can tell, but there is one. Strong emotions and pain sometimes bleed over from the original or from one clone to all the others. It's not strong enough to follow or for us to communicate, but it's there. No, I'm probably just floating in the cold and the rain while the sharks nibble my toes," the girl grinned down at Hinata, attempting to lighten the mood. She failed. If Hinata didn't know that doing so would pop the clone, she would have hit the blond girl for that.

"It's not that we're not worried about Naruto-kun," Shizune started, looking towards Tsunade for help.

The Sannin sighed. "We are, but he's always come out of trouble on top before. I have faith in him. You shouldn't let your worry overcome your own."

Anko shrugged. "Eh, besides. Cheeky brat's too stubborn to let something like an accident kill him anyway. And I'm fairly sure that _it_ won't let anything too bad happen to him."

Before Hinata could chastise the blond for further worrying her, a loud crack and a crash reverberated through the entire ship. "What was that?" Tenten asked, looking towards the door.

Tsunade and Anko started towards the hatch to the ship's deck but Naruko spoke up before they could get far, a frown twisting her face into a cute pout. "The thing holding up the sails broke and fell over," she explained.

"The mast snapped?" Tsunade asked, getting a nod.

"Oh for fuck sake. Could anything else possibly go wrong?" Anko growled out. A moment later, the ship shook on a particularly high wave and one of the oil lanterns lighting the room fell from the wall and burst against the floor, setting that side of the room on fire. A quick water jutsu from Tsunade put the fire out before it could do more than blacken the wall and floor and spread smoke about the room. Anko chuckled in embarrassment as the collected women and the boy-turned-girl glared at her. "I just had to open my mouth."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Firstly, I don't think they gave us enough of an idea just how long it takes to get from where ever they left port at to whatever port in Snow Country Team Seven wound up at. They did, however, say it was far away.

Sorry for using so much of the original dialog from the movie, but you'll notice that even the same lines if used by different people can have a different impact on the story. For instance, even if Naruto uses a lot of the same lines most of it's said either in sarcasm, specifically to piss off and/or antagonize Koyuki/Yukie, or in disgust that he'd been all fanboyish over her.

On Naruto and boats: Ever notice that every time he gets on one in canon, Bad Things(TM) happen? It's not as prevalent there as it is here, but it IS there. I think Kishimoto could have made something of it if he'd used it more. (It'd probably be some vague reference to One Piece, though I've never read that.) Naruto's first trip on a boat? Immediately after they get off they're attacked by Zabuza. Naruto's next trip on a boat (if Sea Country comes before Snow Country)? The stuff with Isaribi. The next boat ride? They don't even get to shore before they hit a freaking ice berg. And then get attacked by ninja. And then have to fight the same ninjas while trying to liberate a small nation from an oppressive ruler so the rightful ruler can take the throne. I'm going to do my damnedest to give Naruto a phobia of the things before I'm done, even if not every boat trip ends up with a side-journey somewhere.

Wave? Isn't that back in the opposite direction? Yep. They've only traveled a little less than twenty-four hours, so I'd put them about a third of the way to say Water Country/Kiri at most, but along the northern coast of Fire Country heading up past and around Lightening to wherever Snow is. I'm going to say it's just off the map to the northeast of Lightening, connected, but not a part of that country's territory at the northern side. Also, if you're guessing what I've got planned for this, you're probably correct. It _is_ a part of the challenge and he didn't specify how it had to be done, just that it could if the author wanted. And oh, I wants. Which, as you can guess, means I've finally made up my mind on another choice presented in the challenge. Only one major choice left to make, really.

On Naruto/Naruko: there's plenty of evidence that Naruto acts just a little differently when in one form or the other. You could interpret it as simply playing the part, but I'm not going to. I'll explain it more later in the story, but for now suffice it to say that it's not so much a different personality as it is a seeing the world through another set of eyes and reacting differently because of it. Naruto already looks at things differently than other people—thinking outside the box, as it were—so why should switching forms be any different? And yes, Naruko is an open pervert while Naruto tries his hardest not to be perverted at all. She seems to channel all the naughty/mischievous parts of Naruto's personality, or at least will here. I mean come on, it's a girly-jutsu made specifically to throw off perverts, so even the jutsu itself is a prank. Also, if Hinata ever came on to Naruto in Naruko form there isn't much of a chance s/he would put up much of a fight.

Also, on use of Japanese words in an English story: I only really use Japanese words for about three instances. For something formal or specific (hitai-ate when referred to by ninja, headband when referred to by civilians; Konoha as opposed to Leaf; Hi no Kuni, Konohagakure no Sato, etc on official documents), for jutsu names when used by a character (a character yelling 'kage bunshin' sounds slightly better than one yelling 'shadow clone technique,' and you'll notice I rarely have the characters actually say the jutsu name or if they do I'll just say they said it and not write it out most of the time), and when there really isn't a word in English that expresses the sentiment and/or meaning that one in Japanese can express (suffixes such as -chan, -kun, -sama, -shishou, while sometimes sounding ok as 'Lady Tsunade' as opposed to 'Tsunade-sama' do not sound ok at all when changed out for something like 'dearest/little/cute/etc Person' as opposed to 'Person-chan' or 'Master Tsunade' as opposed to 'Tsunade-shishou;' and specifically in this chapter 'nee-chan' as opposed to 'sister/lady/woman.' That, and 'Shizu-neechan'/'Shizune-chan' had potential for later). On a similar, related note: male vs female forms of words. You don't see much of it in Japanese, which is why when you get translations you miss out on that aspect of things. More specifically though, I suppose it's a habit I picked up somewhere to put a word in its female form when referring to a female character and vice verse for male—so if you see 'blonde' as opposed to 'blond' occasionally, you'll have to forgive me.

On a side note, I may start supplying a soundtrack for each chapter in the author's notes. I've found most of the Naruto music kind of sucks, except for a few of the OP/ED things and a very little bit of the background music. It's honestly the first anime I've found where I didn't like the BGM stuff. Besides, none of the themes fit any more for this story, so if anything it would get an entirely new opening and ending sequence as when they go from one season to the next.


	15. Taken to Heart

**The Missing Hokage**

**15: Taken to Heart**

* * *

Naruto floated in darkness, only semi-aware of his surroundings. He was wet, and cold, and the wind stung his face. Occasionally, water would slosh over him and he would splutter and cough and try to regain his breath until the next wave hit. After an unknown amount of time, his suffering in this limbo between waking and sleep ended as something pulled him below the surface of waking. Looking around, he found himself in a familiar setting. The blond shivered as wind whipped through the sewer he'd come to associate with the seal that held he fox back, his wet clothes and skin offering no protection against it. Knowing it was the fox that had brought him here, the boy stood and stumbled towards where he knew the cage room to be, the movement not helping to warm him in the slightest. Honestly, cold had never bothered him that much. This was the coldest he'd ever felt in his short life. It worried the blond.

When Naruto came into sight of the cage the fox wasted no time before it began to berate the boy. **"Your negligence has nearly killed us this time, you little brat."**

"Shut your face, you stupid fox," the blond growled out through chattering teeth. "Whatever it was, it's not my fault." After a moment of glaring at the fox, he asked, "Where the hell are we anyway?"

**"Adrift,"** the fox answered bluntly, narrowing its eyes at the blond in a glare. **"You were too busy gloating to pay attention to your surroundings and nearly got your head torn off, sending us into the drink in the process. Exactly where I DON'T WANT TO BE, YOU LITTLE SHIT!"**

Naruto rolled his eyes, somehow managing not to be bowled over by the fox's yell. "What's crawled up your ass and died?"

The fox snarled, pacing irritably in its cage. **"You wouldn't know, nor do I feel inclined to inform you. Suffice it to say, we are in very real, very mortal peril. And using my chakra to keep your frail **_**human**_** body from dying of hypothermia will only attract more attention that I do not want."**

"What's the matter? The big, bad Kyuubi no Kitsune afraid of a little water?" Naruto snickered, though it came out sounding more like a wheeze than a snicker.

**"I FEAR NOTHING!"** the fox roared, smashing its head against the gate and glaring death at the blond. **"And it is not the dark you should fear you impudent little whelp, it's what hides in it. I would know. The sea is the same. Only a fool would set foot on it with no thought towards caution."**

"I stopped being afraid of the dark when I was five years old," Naruto snorted, though he understood what the fox meant. He continued to argue simply for entertainment. Anything was better than standing here and listening to his teeth chatter. "Besides, being afraid of the dark itself is kind of stupid."

The fox rolled its gigantic eyes. **"Every thinking being holds an irrational fear of the dark, little fool,"** here, it smirked. **"What they fail to realize is that it's not irrational."**

"Huh?"

The fox shook its head, dismissing the subject. **"In any event, come over here. I can't just flood your body with youki or it will eventually eat you alive. I need you to accept it willingly and it can't be very much. Not that it's going to take much at all. Like blood in the water,"** the fox said, the last part murmured almost low enough that Naruto missed it.

"Why the hell should I do what you say? For all I know, you'll try to eat me again."

A gigantic snort of derision preceded the fox's leer. **"I would and will eventually. However, this is not the time for our usual foreplay. I give you my word, I will do you no harm until we are out of this oversized pissing-hole."**

Naruto actually laughed. "Your word? You're a demon, and worse you're a fox. Lies and trickery are your nature. I'd know," the blond grinned, those last words coming out sing-song. "So your word is worth shit to me."

**"My word is my bond,"** came a low growl from the other side of the cage. **"Now do as I say or we'll both die. And I swear, if your stupidity gets us killed I **_**will**_** eat you."**

Seeing that he had no real other option aside from ignoring the fox and suffering the cold, the blond approached the cage and sat down facing it. Slowly, a pool of red liquid seeped from under the bars, flowing around the blond and alleviating the worst of the cold. Yawning, he focused his mind towards pondering the fox's most recent words and actions. Firstly, despite what it said the fox actually seemed worried. And anything that worried Kyuubi was probably bad news for Naruto. Akatsuki worried Kyuubi. And as for the demon's word... well, what worth could that possibly have? A bond? What kind of bullshit was the fox spouting off this time? None of those thoughts stayed on his mind long, nor did anything else as he blacked out into blissful oblivion.

The first thing he became aware of as conscious thought returned was an uncomfortable scratchy feeling over most of his body. It felt like someone had dunked him in water and rolled him around in beach sand. Reaching up with a groan, he scratched at a particularly itchy patch on his arm. _'Oh, it is sand,'_ the blond thought slowly. A shadow blocked out the dim light hitting his face and the boy reacted on instinct, reaching for a kunai as his eyes shot open to assess his attacker. His hand never made it to his pouch as he took in the features of the person standing over him. Long, dark hair framed a girlish face, dark eyes staring down into his own as a small smile graced the person's face. The person above Naruto was even wearing the last clothes the blond had seen on them: a light green mid-sleeved hakama over a maroon long-sleeved shirt and what were either mid-shin pants or a skirt. A red obi tied at the back in a bow at the back finished the outfit.

"If we keep meeting like this, I'm going to have to ask that you at least buy me dinner," the feminine-sounding voice from above teased.

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "I like girls," he deadpanned. Seeing the androgynous-looking person person above him shrug, Naruto surmised, "So, I drowned and this is what the afterlife is like? Uncomfortable and full of dead people?"

"No, though you had managed to wash ashore face down. Had I not found you while gathering food this morning, you surely would have drowned."

"Then how are you still alive Haku? Kakashi-sensei stuck a chidori in your chest! We buried you," the blond pointed out, not mentioning that he and Kakashi had done most of the burying while Sasuke recuperated and Sakura tended to him. Nor did he mention that Sasuke had rammed that same jutsu into his own chest and that he knew it was survivable—at least for him. If the attacker missed anything vital, then perhaps it would be possible to survive if the victim didn't die of blood loss or many of the other complications involved in treating such a wound—or so what medical knowledge Naruto possessed lead him to believe.

"And you did an admirable job of it," Haku nodded, extending a hand towards the blond. He faltered slightly when the younger boy folded his arms and refused to move. "If you must know how I survived Kakashi-san's jutsu, I am afraid I do not have the answer to that. I was as surprised as you are now to wake up to find myself buried alive."

"So what, you just dug your way out with that huge wound and then sewed yourself up?" the blond asked sarcastically. There had to be some catch. There was no possible way it could be that simple.

Haku sent the blond a somewhat annoyed look. "Actually, yes. Though the sewing up parts were interspersed with bandaging myself, passing out from blood loss, hunting for curative herbs, more unconsciousness, and generally trying not to die again."

Naruto faltered slightly. Ok, maybe it _was_ that simple. "I thought you wanted to," Naruto pointed out quietly after a moment. "You wanted me to kill you." That had, at the time, been one of the hardest decisions he had been faced with. For someone he had viewed as a friend to ask that of him... It had been almost like handing the boy a kunai and politely asking him to cut out his own heart.

Haku nodded. "At the time, yes. However, having experienced it once, I can honestly say that once is enough for one lifetime. And I am truly sorry for having asked such a thing of you."

Narrowing his eyes in thought, Naruto asked, "So you've just been surviving for the past... six months or so? Has it really only been that long?" the blond asked, his voice dropping near the end. He'd never realized it before now, but he'd been a ninja for less than a year. In the short time he'd been outside of Konoha his skills had seen more improvement than at any time inside the village, save for when he was under Ero-Sennin.

"Something like that. And it's been closer to eight months," Haku smiled. "Your little friend found me after the first month. He would have killed me, if he weren't such a bad shot."

"Inari?" Naruto asked, getting a nod. The blond grinned. "How is Tazuna's family? Or do you know?"

Haku bit his lip and nodded, turning away from the blond. "Inari-san and Tsunami-san are probably fine," he answered quietly.

"So what, they just forgave you after you tried to kill Tazuna?"

Haku shrugged. "Tazuna-san understood that it was just business. Inari-san and his mother were less forgiving, but they have not alerted the hunter-nin to my survival, so I must assume that they do not wish me dead."

"Ah, that's right. You and Zabuza were originally from Kiri right?"

"Yes," Haku nodded again. "Though I was never enrolled in the ninja program. They hunted me simply because I was Zabuza-sama's tool." Haku looked down to regard the blond. "I see that you no longer wear the Konoha hitai-ate."

Rolling to his feet, Naruto stood and started brushing the sand off. "It's complicated," the blond shrugged, looking around. "Isn't that lake near here?" he asked, getting a nod. "Can you show me? I want to wash the sand and salt off."

"You trust me, just like that?" Haku asked, amused.

Naruto snickered briefly before growing serious. "No, I learned my lesson the first time. You were my first real friend and you tried to kill me and my team." Seeing Haku about to apologize, Naruto waved him off. "'Just business,' I know how it is. I forgave you for it a while ago—you being alive again doesn't change that. We're not enemies any more though, right?" he asked, getting a nod in answer. "Great. Besides... I've had a couple of clones waiting to stick a rasengan in your head if you tried anything since I woke up."

Haku raised an eyebrow. "I never sensed you perform any jutsu," he pointed out, calling the blond's bluff. A clone dropping down out of a tree overhead to land beside the boy nearly caused him to react on instinct and attempt to skewer it, before he remembered that he was unarmed. "I see. You have improved much since we last fought."

What sounded suspiciously like a wet sniffle drew Haku's attention back to what he thought was the original blond. Naruto's face had scrunched up in an effort to hold back what were obviously tears. Haku blinked when, a moment later, he found himself nearly flung to the ground by not one but a pair of blonds. "You tried to make me kill you, you jackass!" one of the two managed to choke out.

Unused to such displays, the older boy nonetheless returned the hug that was threatening to reopen the wound in his chest—just not with nearly as much force. It was... nice, really, to realize that someone had mourned his death. Morbid, but nice to know he had been and apparently still was wanted in this world as more than a simple tool. "I am sorry." Not knowing what else to say, Haku decided perhaps it was sometimes best to say nothing at all and simply waited for the younger boy to recompose himself. Long minutes later, the blond—both of him—disengaged himself from the taller boy and wiped furiously at his eyes, leaving a patch of sand on Haku's hakama where he had been. Haku heard the clone quietly pop behind him as he began brushing off the beach sand.

"Sorry about that," Naruto grinned, his arms going behind his head. "I don't know what came over me."

Haku smiled, shaking his head. "It is nothing you have to apologize for. It seems you have grown in more than just skill since last we met," he mused, referring to how the boy had reacted at first. He had matured to the point where he could assess a potential threat first and worry about his feelings over something as Earth-shattering as a once-friend returning from the grave once he was certain there was no threat.

"Maybe a little," Naruto shrugged. "We could spar later and find out about the skill part, if you're up for it?"

Haku shook his head. "I can not."

"Why not?"

Looking out into the surrounding forest, Haku answered after several minutes of walking. "It is the price I must pay for my failure to protect Zabuza-sama. I can no longer mold chakra and I tire easily."

"So you can't be a ninja any more?" the blond asked, getting a nod in answer. Looking down at the path before him, he asked, "Have you seen a doctor or a medic-nin?"

"Yes," Haku answered and Naruto swore he picked up a trace of bitterness in the older boy's tone. "One was traveling with a group of ninja wearing hitai-ate I have never seen before. He seemed nice but..." Haku frowned. "He knew more than he should. He knew I had a bloodline. When he found out I could no longer mold chakra due to the damage done by Kakashi-san's attack, he lost interest and their group left."

"What did the hitai-ate look like?" the blond asked in curiosity.

"A musical note."

The blond nearly tripped. "What?!" Seeing Haku nod, he asked, "Did this guy have silver hair and glasses and act like a know-it-all?"

Again, Haku nodded. "Yes, you know him?"

"Kabuto. Was my teammate with him?"

"The Uchiha?" Haku asked. Getting a nod, he shook his head. "No. Why wou... I see," he said quietly, eying the Jiei hitai-ate again. "We're here."

"Huh?" the blond asked, looking at the older boy in confusion.

Haku smiled, gesturing towards the large body of water the blond appeared to be ignoring. "You said you wished to bathe?" he reminded.

"Oh, right!" Naruto grinned, remembering he was covered in sand and dried sea salt. Looking between the lake and his clothes, he created a kage bunshin and began to strip as Haku sat down on a patch of grass and watched calmly. Handing the clothes off to the clone, Naruto waded into the water and began to scrub himself down as best as he could while the clone used a combination of the water controlling exercise and scrubbing to rid the clothes of sand and sea salt. Once he was sure they were clean, the clone pulled the clothes from the water and then used the water controlling exercise to pull the water from the clothes, leaving them dry and as clean as they were likely to get out here. Tossing them over a low tree limb, the clone dispersed. "How long ago did Kabuto pass through? And was Orochimaru with him?"

"Who?" Haku asked. The name sounded familiar, but not particularly. "And this was nearly three months ago."

"Oh right, you probably wouldn't know who he is since you didn't attend an academy," Naruto mused, scrubbing his hair clean. After ducking under the water to rinse off, he came back up and wiped the moisture away from his eyes. "Tall guy, long hair, really creepy-looking?" Looking over to Haku and seeing no sign of recognition on the boy's face, Naruto shrugged. "Well, it makes sense that if Sasuke-teme wasn't here the Sannin wouldn't be either."

"I take it that Sasuke-san left Konoha to train under this Orochimaru person?" Haku asked, getting a nod from the blond. "And he is not a Konoha ninja?"

The blond shook his head. "He's the leader of Otogakure. Guess that makes him the Otokage?"

"Only the five major villages have true Kages," Haku pointed out.

"Right," the blond nodded. "He's from Konoha though."

"A traitor, I suppose?" the former-apprentice asked, getting a nod in answer. "So then, since he was on your team, you and... Sakura-san? were sent to retrieve him along with Kakashi-san?"

"Kakashi was busy with who-knows-what and Sakura-ch.. Sakura didn't go," he said, almost tacking on the '-chan' out of habit, a slip of the tongue Haku did not miss. "It was me and a couple of the other genin from Konoha and a newly promoted chuunin. We were the only ones available at the time."

"And you failed." It was not a question, but Naruto nodded anyway. "So you ran?" Haku asked, then shook his head. "No, that doesn't seem like you at all. You are the sort of person who would go back and try your hardest to improve, no matter how long it takes until you became strong enough to pursue him again." Continuing along that line of thought, Haku regarded the bathing blond for a moment before surmising, "You were forced to leave."

"Exiled and told they'd kill me if I came back," Naruto grinned. "Guess I painted over the Hokage monument one too many times."

"I see," the older boy nodded. "I am sorry. As you know, I know what it's like not to be wanted in what was once your home."

Naruto shrugged, making his way out of the water. Concentrating for a moment, he channeled a short burst of chakra to fling the water from his body. A moment of running his hands through his hair and using the water manipulation exercise allowed him to dry that as well. Reaching up onto the limb, he pulled down his clothes and began to dress while simultaneously checking them over for any damage. Not finding any, he began an inventory of his gear. Hitai-ate? Check. Shuriken and kunai holsters and the weapons to fill them? Check. Raijin? Big check. Opening the scroll pockets on his vest, he pulled out the lone scroll he'd had on his person and opened it. It ripped and fell to pieces at his feet, the seals on it ruined. "Shit!" Naruto growled. "Damn it! That guy said that scroll was waterproof. That had all my extra weapons in it," the blond grumbled, much to the watching Haku's amusement as the boy whined something about fuuma shurikens.

Finally dressed, Naruto looked around the area before regarding Haku. "Uh... I'm kind of lost. Which way is the old man's house again?"

Haku's amusement instantly dissipated as he was reminded of the bridge builder. "I don't think you should go..." he said, but sighed and stood, leading Naruto along anyway when the blond sent him a glare.

"Why shouldn't I?" Naruto asked, walking beside the boy.

Haku sighed. "The country of Wave has had some... conflict recently."

"More assholes trying to take over the place?"

The older boy nodded. "As far as I can tell there are no ninja among their ranks, though I am not entirely sure. They could simply be better at masking their presence than I am at attempting to detect them. They seem to be composed mostly of Gatou's former henchmen."

"So what's that got to do with Tazuna?"

Biting his lip for a moment, Haku answered slowly. "After I found you, I went to tell Tazuna-san of your arrival. There were signs of a struggle and I did not find Tsunami-san or Inari-san."

"What?! Why didn't you help them?"

Haku narrowed his eyes at the blond. "I am unarmed. I can not use chakra. I have no knowledge of their numbers and only a vague idea of where they have taken Inari-san and Tsunami-san. Rushing in blindly would be foolish and suicidal, especially in my condition. Once night falls, I had intended to scout the area for them, attempt to liberate them from their captors, then have them flee across the bridge to Fire Country—after I take out the men guarding the bridge. Knowing you would wake soon, I put off acting until I could attempt to persuade you to join me."

"What. About. Tazuna?" the blond ground out. He was angry at Haku for not telling him sooner and for beating around the bush about it, but he could not find fault in the older boy's reasoning. Even a fresh ninja could fall to superior numbers of lesser combatants unless he intended to kill all of them and cause enough of a ruckus doing so to keep them from organizing and ganging up on the ninja in question.

"Tazuna-san is dead," Haku answered softly. He blinked when the blond disappeared from beside him, flying ahead through the forest and leaving a faintly glowing trail of chakra in his wake. Haku sighed and broke into a run following the blond. He just hoped his wounds wouldn't reopen again.

* * *

The previous night, Team Hokage quickly vacated Yukie's fire-damaged cabin after confirming that there was no sign of the original Naruto. After some quick internal debate, the actress had gathered her blankets and followed them back to their room. When asked, she had explained it away by saying that since they'd damaged her room she would be staying in theirs. The group of kunoichi plus Yukie had stayed up most of the night, the civilian passing out some time after two in the morning and the others following quickly. No one argued or complained when Hinata claimed the Naruto-clone for herself, not letting go of the boy in girl form long enough for him/her to protest Hinata spending the night in the same futon. Not that at-the-time Naruko would have complained at all. She was worried about the smaller ex-Hyuuga and wouldn't have denied her whatever comfort she could squeeze out of a clone—literally, since she held the clone so tightly Naruko wondered at one point if she would pop.

As dawn broke over the open water, Naruko came slowly awake to a fairly rare sensation—apparently Shizune had decided to curl up behind the blonde and share with Hinata. While on the road, it had quickly become almost commonplace that one or another of the kunoichi would wind up sharing sleeping space with Naruto (as he had rarely spent much time as Naruko before now), but it was fairly rare that they decided to share. Shrugging it off, the blonde debated the merits of waking one or the other of the girls so she could visit the bathroom—or head rather, she reminded herself that everything went by a different name aboard a ship.

Before she could decide, Hinata leaned up in either sleep or half-waking and did something completely unexpected—planting a kiss squarely on the clone's lips. The blonde was too stunned to react and by the time she'd regained her wits, Hinata had pulled away and buried her head back in the blonde's bust. _'And now I'll feel funny all morning,'_ the blonde mused, half in exasperation. While vaguely familiar with sexual excitement in their normal form, especially in the mornings lately, they—the clones and the original—rarely spent enough time as Naruko to experience it as a female. In fact, this was probably the longest extended time she had spent under the Naruko-henge. Confused slightly at referring to herself as one or the other name—after all, wasn't Naruko just Naruto under a henge, not a separate and individual identity?—she sighed quietly and switched from debating waking one of the girls to debating whether or not to ask Shizune embarrassing questions. Asking Tsunade felt kind of weird to the blonde and asking Anko was right out. And while Hinata would probably be perfectly willing to answer any question she may have, Shizune was older and more experienced and almost equally as unlikely to tease her about it or tell the others.

When she felt Shizune stir behind her, Naruko attempted to get up to make for the head—her bladder painfully reminding her of her obligations. Apparently clones could and did function as the original in almost every way, though they'd figured out the bathroom bit the second day using kage bunshin—rather embarrassingly at that. The clones eventually needed to eat, sleep, and void themselves just as the original did. Certainly a clone could stay awake all night or avoid eating for a few days and not have any adverse effect on the original, but it degraded their performance. Perhaps the weirdest thing they had discovered was that if a clone had to use the facilities shortly after coming into being and was dispelled shortly after doing so, the waste left over would disappear as well. However, should a clone last long enough to eat a few meals, any waste left would remain regardless of whether the clone dispersed or not. Perhaps kage bunshin cloned everything on and _in_ the user's person, up to and including food. What happened to the leftover still inside the clone when it dispersed was a mystery though...

Naruko's thoughts were cut off as Hinata tightened her grip around her midsection. "Don't go," the girl murmured.

The blonde whined. "But I have to _go_," she said just loudly enough for Hinata to hear, drawing a sigh out of the smaller girl.

"Hurry back," she said quietly, releasing the taller girl.

Nodding, though she knew Hinata wouldn't see it, Naruko got up and dashed off for the head. After relieving herself, she exited the head to come face to face with one of the crew. Looking at the girl oddly since he had not seen her board, the crewman shrugged it off when he spotted the girl's headband. He had seen the other young blond around the boat and this one bore a striking resemblance, right down to the hair, blue eyes, and what looked like whisker marks on either cheek. Maybe she was his sister and she had simply been overlooked? "The storm's breaking earlier than expected," he reported. "Your boss wanted one one of us to let the first one of you that woke up know when we could be under way. Captain figures we can make ready by nightfall, so long as we can hoist the mast back into place and lash it down long enough to get to port and make proper repairs."

Naruko nodded, thanking the crewman before heading back to the room she was sharing with the rest of the kunoichi. Sliding open the door, she looked around the dim room and spotted Hinata laying a short distance away from Shizune—the ex-Hyuuga girl's eyes open. Seeing the blonde, one slim hand snuck out from under the blanket and patted the spot between herself and Shizune. Naruko gulped as realization dawned. It was no accident that _Naruto_ found himself often sharing sleeping arrangements with the kunoichi of the group. They did not simply wander in the night and happen to wind up with him when they came back. Well, at least in Hinata's case, it was completely intentional. She wasn't sure about the others, but she now saw Hinata's actions for what they were—attempting to express her affection in any way she could, trying to remain near whenever she could. Seeing the smaller girl's eyes narrow slightly in impatience, Naruko slid the door to the cabin closed and slipped back between Shizune and Hinata. Instantly, the smaller girl's arms were around her torso and her head was buried in the crook between the blonde's neck and shoulder. The realization that Hinata was not simply playing around and was entirely serious in her affection for the boy-turned-girl slammed home with more force than any physical blow Tsunade could ever deal.

Before the blonde had time to formulate a response to that particular revelation, a breath against her neck and a quiet whisper drew her attention out of her thoughts to the smaller girl in her arms. "Hm?" she asked quietly, not having caught what Hinata had mumbled, having been distracted at the time. Of course, she was still distracted, but at least now she was paying attention.

Against the blonde, Hinata sighed in disappointment that the taller girl hadn't heard her. Biting her lip in trepidation, she considered repeating herself. A warm hand coming to rest atop her on against the blonde's back caused her to open her eyes. They focused on Shizune behind the blonde, sending an encouraging smile towards the younger kunoichi. _'Do it,'_ the older kunoichi mouthed encouragement.

Perhaps this wouldn't be quite so hard, knowing she had the others' support. Tilting her head slightly until she felt her lips brush against the blonde's ear, Hinata took a quick breath—causing the other girl to shiver against her—and repeated herself. "I said '_I love you_.'"

Naruko stiffened against the smaller girl, her heart stopping for a moment before starting again at triple the pace. She'd actually said it. There could be no confusion, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation of the smaller girl's confession. There could also be no denying it now. Before, regardless of what the others had hinted at or Anko had said outright, she/he had always doubted. Sure, she had _hoped_ it was true, but having never heard it from the girl herself she could reason that she didn't know for sure. Now though? Oh yeah, she was certain—Hinata genuinely meant what she said. "But... I—"

Hinata shushed the blonde, shaking her head quickly. "You don't have to say anything now. I just... wanted to tell you myself." Across the taller girl from her, Shizune winked and sent her a thumbs up before slipping away unnoticed, making her way from the room and presumably towards the head.

Closing her mouth with an audible snap, Naruko hugged the smaller girl as hard as she felt was safe for both of them—after all, it wouldn't do to accidentally pop herself and leave the group (and Hinata especially) without a Naruto-clone. Feeling the smaller girl return the hug with just as much force, Naruko sniffed for a moment before trying to compose herself. She was not crying. At all. Uzumaki Naruto did not cry... any more. She had no way of knowing that Naruto himself would disprove that statement shortly. She ignored the fact that again, she had referred to her male counterpart by name as opposed to herself—as though making a distinction between the two. Blinking away unwanted excess moisture from her eyes, the blonde turned her thoughts towards the girl in her arms.

Despite his shoddy education, Naruto—that is the original, the creator, and thus all of the clones created by him—had a naturally sharp mind. His main difficulties with putting it to use were his obscenely short attention span for such things and an aversion towards thinking too hard on any one thing since it invariably led him back to wondering why things always seemed so much harder for him than those around him. But when he actually focused on something for more than a minute at a time before dismissing it he had always invariably found either a solution for the problem in question or a way around it. It wasn't always the best solution and more often than not it was something no one else would have possibly dreamed up, but it had never failed the blonde before.

What Naruto did not know, had not realized yet but would soon, was that_ Naruko _had a slightly different way of thinking from the original blond. Perhaps it was some difference wrought from actually, physically becoming a female in _every_ way that mattered while using that particular jutsu and thus becoming just that little bit more different from the original. And being even just a little different, she reacted differently. Whereas the boy would have probably jumped up for joy, shouting his revelation to the heavens for anyone and everyone to hear—and waking the entire ship in the process—Naruko did not. She realized doing so would be too, well... _boyish_. Hinata needed a different reaction—something more intimate. Sure, she realized the smaller girl would appreciate either response, but she _deserved_ to have a somewhat more thought-out response than that.

'_What do I do? What do I say to that?'_ Naruko had waited her entire life—Naruto, _his_ whole life, she reminded herself absently, idly thinking _'I'm not really a girl'_—to hear those words from someone, _anyone_, so long as they meant it. And now that it had finally happened, the blonde had no idea how to proceed. Naruko had no idea how relationships were supposed to progress and only a vague idea of what love even was. Putting off deciding the next step for now, she focused on her feelings for the ex-Hyuuga and what she knew of her.

_'I really like Hinata-chan,'_ the blonde mused. _'She's probably the best friend I've ever had. She's nice, kind, and she's never been anything but that towards me any time we've actually been together and she didn't faint. She's a lot nicer than Sakura ever was to pretty much everyone but Sasuke-teme... and she's prettier too,'_ here, the blonde grinned. _'She was the first person there the morning we left. She left the only home and family she's ever known behind—even if they are a bunch of jerks—and she did it for me! She loves me... I don't know if I feel the same way or not.'_ Opening her eyes, she eyed the head of indigo hair just below her chin. _'But I really want to find out.'_

Behind the blonde, she heard the door to the cabin slide open and closed as someone entered and padded across the room. After the momentary distraction, Naruko made up her mind. _'Maybe I should stop thinking so much and just try.'_ Nodding to herself as a vague plan began to take shape, the blonde bit her lip and spoke quietly. "Hinata-chan?" she asked, getting a nod from the girl against her chest that let her know she had the smaller girl's attention. "I really like you too," she admitted quietly, continuing with, "I just don't know what to do."

Naruko felt the smaller girl hug her tighter for a moment. "I know. It's ok."

"Do you uh.. I don't know—it's kind of a silly thing to ask," she faltered for a moment before she found a finger pressed to her lips as the dark haired girl turned her head up and looked the blonde in the eyes.

"Naruko-chan, you're babbling," Hinata admonished softly, a smile gracing her lips that made the blonde's heart skip a beat.

After a moment, she shot Hinata a foxy grin before biting the finger against her lips playfully. Quickly releasing it, she asked, "Do you want to go on a date some time?"

Hinata giggled quietly, nodding. "Of course." She punctuated her agreement by closing the distance between them and brushing her lips to those of the blonde. _'I'm kissing Naruto-kun..!'_ Hinata very nearly fainted for the first time in weeks at that thought, either forgetting for the moment or not caring to make the distinction between the male and female blond. After all, Naruto and Naruko were both the same person, right? When the taller girl hesitantly tried to return the kiss, Hinata gasped. _'Naruto-kun is kissing me back!'_

"Looks like someone's having fun," a voice from above the pair drew their attention. Breaking the kiss, they looked up to find Anko—clad in only her mostly fishnet armor undershirt and a pair of girl's boxers—leering down at them. "Oh, don't stop on my account. That's actually pretty hot. Too bad neither of you has any real clue what you're doing." A devious smirk came over the special-jonin's face as she knelt down beside them. "For instance, your hands should be here," she took one of Naruko's hands and placed it firmly against the soft mound of Hinata's tee-shirt-covered right breast, "and here," the other hand she forced to cup the ex-Hyuuga's firm rear. "And yours should be..." Anko paused for a minute as she gave the current situation some thought since both were girls at the moment. "Ah! Here," one of Hinata's hands was directed to rest on one of Naruko's breasts. "And here," the older kunoichi smirked, bringing Hinata's other hand to rest against the blonde's thigh, just below and barely an inch away from her crotch.

Anko's smirk widened further as the pair seemed too stunned to even move. Well, not quite that stunned as she could see hands unconsciously twitching around the flesh they held. "That's enough out of you for one morning," Tsunade's voice broke in, causing the special-jonin to frown.

"But I was having fun!" she whined. Below her, the pair of girls had recovered from their shock and turned their heads to regard each other. By some unspoken agreement, neither had shied away or even moved their hands from where Anko had placed them. In fact, the older kunoichi was almost certain that at least Hinata looked perfectly willing to pick right up where they'd left off—witnesses or no.

"Knock it off," the Sannin grumbled, her fist coming down to smack the special-jonin atop the head and grind her knuckles into Anko's scalp. "Even if it is amusing," she allowed after a moment, grinning down past Anko towards the two teens. After a moment, she dismissed the trio playing below her and turned towards business. "Any word on when we can start moving?"

Naruko sighed in annoyance. Having their moment interrupted had been bad enough, but now she knew for certain that she'd be feeling funny for the rest of the day. She made a note to pull Shizune off to the side and ask those questions she wanted answered later. "They said as soon as the rain lets up they can start trying to rig up something for the mast until we can get to port and make repairs. Earliest guesstimate is having us moving by nightfall. Limping back, we'd probably get to port two days from now."

Tsunade's eyes narrowed. "That's not soon enough," the Sannin grumbled, then turned and made her way over to her bag to get dressed. "I'm going to go see what I can do to speed things up," she announced, leaving the room once she was dressed.

Once the Sannin was out of the room, Anko grinned back down at the pair of girls. "Comfortable?"

The pair nodded and Naruko sent a foxy grin up at the older kunoichi. "Very."

"What happened to not acting like a pervert?"

Frowning for a moment, the blonde turned her head to regard Hinata who simply smiled back. Nodding, she turned her attention back towards the special-jonin and shrugged—a motion Hinata enjoyed, as it sent the blonde's bust moving against her hand. "Everyone's a little perverted. Besides, if I'm a pervert just for being here, then you're the bigger pervert for rearranging us. And a child-molester to boot."

Anko snickered. "Good answer. You're wrong on the last part though." Seeing the blonde's confused look, Anko explained. "There are no children in this room," she said simply, pointing towards the hitai-ate Hinata still wore around her neck. "Why do you think no one pitched a fit when we dragged you into a casino?"

"Wait, so..." the blonde girl started, her mind working through the information Anko had dropped in her lap. "Ninja are exceptions to the normal laws?"

The older kunoichi nodded. "Putting on that hitai-ate means taking on all the responsibilities of an adult and then some. It's not actually written into law, but no one has ever argued with ninja on the matter of any sort of legal age. The last time someone in Konoha tried was when some bartender tried to deny Uchiha Fugaku sake for Itachi on his graduation. Didn't go over too well," Anko shrugged. "Pretty much, the rule is that if you're old enough to kill and possibly die then you're old enough to drink, gamble, or fuck." She smirked when the pair below her blushed nearly bright enough to light the room. _'Wonder how far down that goes,'_ she mused, seeing that the blushes went well past the neck on both girls.

"What Anko means is that ninja lead inherently short lives, so certain concessions are made to ensure that there are future generations of ninja to replace those lost early," Shizune spoke up from the other side of the special-jonin. "And I think that's enough revelations for one morning. How about we go get breakfast?"

After getting dressed, the four kunoichi plus one pseudo-kunoichi made their way towards the galley. On the other side of Naruko from Hinata, Tenten occasionally sent the pair a thoughtful look. She was honestly happy for the once terminally shy former Hyuuga. She just wished she could experience the same thing for herself. And back in the room, Yukie's eyes opened as she heard the door close behind the kunoichi. _'So, that's how it is,'_ she mused.

It was shortly after mid-day and the kunoichi, minus Tsunade, had gathered back in their cabin. Off to one side, Yukie listened in to the group with a bored look plastered on her face. Honestly though, she was interested in the conversation—she just didn't want to let it show.

"So why are you still using the Naruko-henge?" Tenten asked during a lull in conversation, drawing the attention of the group to the blonde in question.

Naruko shrugged for a moment before grinning wide enough to force her eyes closed. Seeing the foxy grin directed specifically at her, Yukie shuddered slightly, murmuring 'Unnatural,' under her breath. None of the kunoichi gathered missed the reaction. "I'm having too much fun to stop," the blonde admitted. After a moment, she turned her head towards Hinata and asked, "You don't mind?"

The indigo-haired girl shook her head, smiling. "I wouldn't want to spoil your fun," she answered, before admitting quietly, "Besides, I like both."

That admission earned her a confused look from the blonde. "Huh?" she asked eloquently. After a moment, she snapped her fingers and turned towards Shizune, remembering. "Oh, uh... can we talk? Please?"

"What about?" Shizune asked, curious.

"It's kind of personal," the blonde admitted, blushing.

Snickering, Anko said, "Has she even had _the talk_?"

"Oh, no," Shizune murmured, burying her face in her palms. Taking a deep, steadying breath, she stood and took the blonde by the hand. Pulling the shorter girl to her feet, Shizune started to lead the blonde towards the door. Honestly, she had expected Naruko to already know these things—especially having had both Jiraiya and Kakashi as senseis. And if she hadn't known, she had thought she would go to Tsunade or Anko for advice on sex—not her! Bracing herself for what was to come, she slid the door open.

"I guess that leaves you for me," Anko leered at Hinata, fully intending to do everything in her power to embarrass the younger kunoichi. She had half a mind to give the younger girl a crash course in the finer points of enjoying a partner, since it was absolutely necessary for a kunoichi to know and it would be very entertaining to find out just how many shades of red she could turn the smaller girl.

Nearly to the door, Naruko stopped, causing Shizune to falter and turn around to regard the blonde. "What's the matter?" she asked, seeing the distant look on the younger girl's face. They had everyone's attention.

She had been feeling clones pop all morning, so she knew Naruto—the original—was alive and well. Finding out Haku was alive had been a shock, but after the revelation Hinata had provided she was too emotionally drained to react much to that. Besides, the original had done that enough for them all. Looking up, Naruko's eyes were still unfocused as she answered quietly. "Naruto is awake. And he's really, _really_ pissed off."

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto was a naturally easy-going person most of the time. After years of constant overexposure to hate and disgust from the people of his own village, it took a lot to actually anger the boy. Threatening his precious people was one of the few things that could set the boy off like no other. Actually hurting one of them? The first time it had happened had been with Haku and Sasuke, and the result had nearly killed the false hunter nin. But to find one of the few people whose respect and acknowledgment he had actually earned, one of the very few that saw him as more than just 'the demon boy' cut down in his own home and the body looking more like some kind of animal had mauled him rather than a person simply ending his life...

The blond's head twitched slightly to one side as the only sign of the oncoming storm. Looking down on Tazuna's lifeless body, he felt oddly calm. He didn't know how long he stood there burning the sight into his mind, all the while the fox's laughter and screams for blood pounding on the back of his mind. He looked up slowly as he felt a hand settle on his shoulder. Moving his hand lower, Haku clasped the blond's bicep and pulled lightly towards the door. Naruto refused to move.

"We should leave," he suggested quietly, worried for the blond boy. He had seen many things in his time with his former master. He had seen anger, hate, and blind rage on the faces of others at the loss of friends and family—sometimes by his own making. The shell-shocked look on the blond's face shifted to one of cold fury, causing the older boy to shiver slightly. He had seen Naruto angry and grieving at what he saw as the loss of a comrade before and that was nothing compared to what he saw now. Haku quickly released his hold on the blond in case he had to run.

"I'm going to kill every last one of them," the blond announced quietly before creating a pair of kage bunshin and following them outside as they carried Tazuna's corpse—after they'd lifted the body onto a sheet and wrapped another around the old man from the front. The fact that there was no real emotion behind the younger boy's proclamation—simply a cold, calm statement of fact—actually frightened Haku for a moment. He had seen firsthand what the boy was capable of when angry, but this... this was so far beyond that it was unreal.

The small procession stopped behind the bridge builder's house. Inside a small storage shed they found a rounded shovel and quickly cloned it before passing around copies. It was nearly dark when the blonds threw on the last shovel-full of soil. After putting away the shovel, the clones dispersed. Looking down at the mound of earth, Naruto's fists clenched. Thinking back to the first time he'd been in this country—which had also ended in him standing over a freshly dug grave—Naruto shook his head. "Anko was right... never leave an enemy alive. We could have kept this from happening if we'd just finished those guys off back then. I'm sorry."

Beside the now bowing blond, Haku shifted his gaze from the blond to the quickly darkening sky. He had offered once to help the boy dig but Naruto had denied the boy's offer, claiming that it was his responsibility. "Do you have a plan?" he asked, knowing the blond wanted to get started soon. In preparation, he had already tied his hair back out of the way and accepted several kunai and shuriken from the blond—though he preferred senbon. Naruto would have given him senbon, had his scroll not been destroyed.

"We go in over the rooftops. We find where they're keeping Inari and Tsunami. We kill whoever is guarding them and you lead them out while I finish things."

"And if there are enemy ninja?"

Naruto shrugged. "Then they'll get to meet Kyuubi."

Haku blinked before going suddenly pale. He had not given his defeat at the blond's hands much thought, but now that he did it made sense. The massive killing intent, the red chakra, those unholy red eyes... The boy even bore the marks of kitsunetsuki across his cheeks. "You..."

Naruto nodded. "I'm a jinchuriki. Sorry." At the moment, he couldn't really bring himself to care that he'd let slip the truth about himself to someone he barely knew.

After a moment, Haku shook his head. "It is nothing you need to apologize for. I see now that even then you understood all along what it is to bear a such a terrible burden and everything that comes with it."

Naruto shrugged. He didn't like talking about his childhood or his status as a demon-vessel. Shit happened when he was a kid that he had no control over, people acted out of fear as people often do, and he couldn't change any of it regardless of how hard he tried. You either got used to it as he had or you went crazy—the path Gaara had chosen for a time, before Naruto forcibly dragged the redhead back into the light. That didn't mean he would ever stop trying, but at least now he had real friends who knew and didn't care. "Let's go."

The pair moved silently through the trees towards town, Naruto keeping a steady pace but staying slow enough that Haku would not have to push himself too hard before the action started. Looking out over the town from the tree line, Naruto's eyes narrowed slightly as he picked out several men wandering the streets carrying weapons. "We'll wait here," the boy said quietly as they sat perched in the same tree. Haku saw him bring his hands up into a familiar seal. A moment later, several pops and small clouds of chakra announced the arrival of over a dozen kage bunshin. The clones scattered—some using henge to change into small dogs and even a few foxes, most using the jutsu to disguise themselves as armed mercenaries, and a few taking off over the roofs to scout from above.

The moon was high in the sky when the blond boy frowned and drew Haku's attention. "The town's empty."

"What?"

"The civilians are being held on a ship," he said, pointing out over the town towards the small shipyard. Beyond the dock, a ship was anchored just far enough from shore to discourage trying to swim from ship to shore. "Most of the assholes are scattered around town looting, though there's a bunch of them in that bar." He pointed out the building in question, its lights visible even from this distance.

After a moment of debate, Haku told the blond, "They were probably going to be sold as slaves." The blond boy nodded in agreement before jumping to another tree and heading towards the docks while skirting the tree line. Haku followed quickly. Once they made it to the docks, they checked to make sure they weren't being followed before Haku spoke again. "How do you intend to get there? A boat will surely be spotted in the time it will take to row out, and we dare not use a motor craft."

"Water walking," the blond shrugged. Blinking, he looked over towards Haku for a moment before scratching the back of his head. "Oh, right. Sorry." Thinking for a moment, the boy grinned. "I'll carry you."

"What?" Haku asked, thankful for the darkness that hid his brief blush. "No, that's ok. I'd rather wait here." His protests were cut off when the blond stepped in front of him, turned around, and caught the taller boy when a clone he hadn't known was there shoved him forward onto the blond's back.

"You might want to hold on. I've never tried this while carrying someone," the boy explained.

A moment later, Haku felt a violent jerk as the pair shot towards the ship, Naruto's feet only occasionally touching the water. As they neared the ship, Naruto leaped up and let go of the chakra for whatever jutsu he'd used to get them there. They dropped onto an empty deck and Naruto released the taller boy as they looked around. "What was that?" Haku asked quietly.

"Shunshin," the blond shrugged.

Haku raised an eyebrow. "I know shunshin. That was not it."

"We don't have time for Twenty Questions," Naruto pointed out. Footsteps nearby alerted the two to someone's approach and they both took to the shadows. As a mercenary guard came into view, Naruto's eyes narrowed as he drew out a kunai. His hand shook faintly as he brought the weapon back to throw. This was it, his first real kill that he couldn't blame on Kyuubi afterwards.

**Can you do it? Are you ready to become a killer? A true shinobi?** the fox chucked somewhere in the back of the blond's mind, taunting, **I don't think you have the balls.**

Taking a steadying breath, the blond clenched his eyes shut for a moment and made his choice. He opened them again just as the guard hit the floor face-down with a dull thud, a kunai buried in the side of his head. Naruto regarded the kunai still in his hand for a moment before looking towards where Haku was kneeling to remove the kunai from the body.

Feeling the blond's gaze on his back, Haku wrenched his borrowed kunai free before turning to regard Naruto. "You must never hesitate."

A kunai whipped past Haku's head, embedding itself hilt-deep into a second guard that had just rounded the corner. Naruto nodded, glancing at his own kunai before giving it up as a lost cause. It would take a good ten minutes to dislodge that. Waving towards the front of the ship, Naruto took off towards the rear as the pair split up to clear the deck of any men they'd missed. Several minutes later, the pair regrouped in front of the only hatch they'd found leaded down into the ship. "I got one, everthing's clear from here back. You?"

"Two. Also clear," Haku confirmed as he followed the blond below deck. The pair swept from room to room, deck by deck, killing every mercenary/bandit they came across. By mutual agreement, they had left the ship's hold for last. Outside, the pair of boys found a pair of guards shooting the shit.

"How long until shift change?" one of the guards asked.

Looking at his pocket watch, the other said, "Half an hour. You can wait that long."

"Yeah, but there's that fine MILF they brought in with her brat this morning. I want to be the first to f—"

Whatever the guard had been about to say was silenced by a kunai to the side of his head, another burying itself into the neck of the guard beside him. "Fucking rapists," Haku growled quietly, again retrieving his weapons.

Holding his hand up to silence the older boy, Naruto put his ear to the hatch. Hearing only muffled sounds of conversation on the other side, Naruto nodded to Haku and the pair prepared their weapons before Naruto threw open the door and they swept the room for threats from outside the door. Sure it was clear, the pair made their way inside, all conversation having died at their appearance. Seeing the headband on the blond, a woman asked, "Are you here to save us?"

Naruto nodded, but was interrupted by a small form slamming into him and nearly knocking him to the floor. "Naruto-niisan!" a familiar voice cried out as the boy attached to his waist bawled in relief. "I told them you would come!"

"Hey, Inari. Where's your mom?"

Tsunami made her way through the crowd of people that had gathered around to inspect the two boys. None of them save for Tsunami seemed to recognize Haku. "It's good to see you again Naruto-san," Tsunami smiled, relief evident on her features. "Have you seen my father?"

Haku answered for the blond. "I found Tazuna-san this morning. I had assumed he died attempting to protect you."

"H-he's dead?"

"Yes," Haku nodded. "Naruto-san and I buried him this afternoon. I am sorry—"

"No you're not!" Inari yelled, drawing everyone's attention to him. "You were helping Gatou! You probably brought them here," Inari started, only to be cut off by a fist colliding with the side of his face and sending him sprawling to the ground. Looking up, he found his attacker was not the missing-nin that had tried to kill them but rather the blond he looked up to. "...Nii-san?"

"Grow up," the blond nearly growled. "Your grandfather is dead and all you can think to do is try to blame someone who came here to help you?" He turned his attention away from the boy towards the prisoners. "And the rest of you—this is the second time you've just rolled over and let someone take everything you have without so much as a fight."

"We did fight! They killed anyone who fought back!" a voice called from the back, drawing agreements from the crowd.

"So you just gave up!?" the blond yelled, shutting them up.

"We sent in a mission request to Konoha. Isn't that why you're here?" Tsunami asked, trying to calm the blond.

Naruto thumped his hitai-ate and shook his head. "I'm not with Konoha any more. They're probably not coming." Turning away from the crowd, Naruto looked to Haku and asked, "You've got things here?"

Haku nodded. "Yes. Give them my regards."

The blond shot the older boy a grim smirk. Walking back towards the hatch, he paused for a moment before tossing over his shoulder, "We can't be everywhere at once. You've going to have to learn to stand on your own two feet."

Naruto made his way above deck, pausing at the ship's railing for a moment to look out over the town. Remembering how he'd found Tazuna, the blond could feel the rage that had been building just below the surface but had quieted as they approached the town come rushing back up at him. He jumped, willing chakra to pull him to shore at an inhuman speed. Once on the docks again, Naruto brought his fingers together into the seal for kage bunshin and created a small army of clones to circle the town and set up a perimeter. Pulling out a pair of kunai, the blond made his way towards where he knew most of the remnants from Gatou's men were drinking themselves into oblivion.

Not halfway there, one of the few men on patrol stepped out onto the same street as the blond and grinned at the boy. "Well, well. Looks like someone's lost," he grinned before brandishing his sword and charging the boy, intent on having a little fun. He blinked as the blond disappeared.

Behind the blond, the bandit on patrol fell to the ground, blood spilling from his throat along with a gurgle as he tried to breathe and drew in blood instead of oxygen. Nearing the bar, he spotted a pair of men just walking inside. The blond shunshined forward and jumped, putting himself between them in order to drive a kunai into each man's head. As they fell forward and through the door, Naruto stepped over their bodies and into the bar. "What the fuck?" a man near the door choked on his drink seeing a small ninja walk into their bar over the dead bodies of two of their comrades. Beside him, the men he had been playing a game of poker with stood, knocking the table over in the process.

Before the table could tilt enough to fall, the blond disappeared from just inside the door to reappear atop the table, righting it as something golden and crackling flashed from his right hand across the gathered men. Three corpses fell, their wounds cauterized by the lightening blade of the legendary Raijin, which the boy had dragged through their faces in a partial decapitation. By now, the drunken men were beginning to become aware of the danger they were in. Several stood and attempted to draw their weapons, only for the blond to draw a single shuriken and fling it negligently towards one of the standing men. The projectile multiplied midair, becoming a wall of steel that tore through everything in its path. What was left didn't even qualify as human remains so much as a pile of steaming meat.

The survivors broke and ran, scattering across the room. Those that tried to rush the blond were quickly cut down by the crackling blade of the Raijin. Seeing a group of them struggling to get through the rear exit, Naruto flung another shuriken and multiplied it, leaving behind another pile of remains that looked as though they'd been run through a meat grinder. Stalking towards the rear door where he knew at least three had escaped before he'd killed the rest, the boy idly swiped the Raijin at the bar. The sword burned straight through the wood that made up the bar as the boy dragged a path from one side of it to the other, killing the man who had attempted to take shelter there. Glancing back into the bar as he stepped outside, Naruto pulled out one of his very few explosive-tagged kunai and threw it into the alcohol rack. Stepping outside, he looked around the street as the tag went off, scattering the alcohol and starting a fire that would burn the building to the ground.

He put the Raijin away as he heard screams from down the street calling for help. Walking towards the sound, he saw a quickly gathering crowd of what looked to be the last of the men inside the town. Just to make sure, he created a clone and dispersed it, sending the command to the others to start sweeping the town for leftovers. He caught the tail end of a conversation as he approached the group of nearly twenty men. "...It's only a kid! Fuck sake, ain't you got any balls? Ninja or not, we're bigger than the little fucker!"

"No, screw that man! I'm out of here!" one of the men called, obviously one of the survivors from the bar, before taking off in a dead run down the street away from the blond.

Several men of the main group rolled their eyes at their comrade's cowardice before unsheathing their weapons and turning their attention towards the blond boy. The blond boy who was currently spinning up a ball of chakra between his hands. When the blond looked up from his work, several of the men nearly wet themselves at the sight of a pair of glowing red eyes, slit down the middle like some kind of animal. "Run all you want you fuckers," the blond growled out, disappearing again and leaving only a trail of glowing chakra in his wake as he slammed the rasengan he'd made into the back of the man's head who had taken off running, grinding it to bloody paste. "YOU'RE STILL GOING TO DIE!"

Turning from his latest kill, Naruto regarded the group for a moment—internally trying to decide just how to finish them off. Shrugging, he spun up another rasengan and charged the group of men, who scattered. The glowing ball of chakra slammed into a man's chest and detonated, sending him flying across the street to crash into a building in a broken heap. Pulling out more kunai, the boy ducked a swipe from a katana as one of the men shook off his fear and attempted to attack. Darting forward, the boy jumped enough to put him at head level with the man before slamming the kunai home in his neck. Landing with a roll to dodge a swing from a man wielding a naginata, the blond brought up another kunai and buried it in his latest attacker's chest before pulling it out and bringing it up to block a downward strike from another katana. Channeling chakra into his arm, he forced the katana up and away from him, stepping into the man's guard and throwing a kick into his knee.

As the knee snapped and the man fell, Naruto dragged his kunai through the exposed throat he'd put within reach of his blade. A movement from behind him drew his attention and he spun around, his left hand going to his belt and coming up with the Raijin. Activating the blade, Naruto brought it up to block a strike from what looked like some sort of poleaxe, cutting off the head of the weapon before flinging his kunai directly into the man's face. Kicking the body back away from him, the blond spotted the remaining men running away down the street. Naruto hadn't wanted to use any of the very few elemental jutsu he knew for fear of damaging what little the people of Wave owned—the bar being the obvious exception. Deciding that it would be worth it to finish this quickly, the blond focused on the retreating men and concentrated on what he'd been learning of elemental manipulation. Channeling far more chakra than was probably necessary including a bunch from Kyuubi, Naruto swept his empty right hand out at the street and sent a quickly-expanding wave of chakra rushing up the street towards the retreating men's backs. The boy's training paid off as he watched the wave of chakra sweep over the men. One moment they were running, the next their upper and lower bodies separated at the waist, spilling intestines across the street and sending the men to what was sure to be a prolonged and painful death.

Naruto put away the Raijin as he felt his clones disperse, memories of finding and killing the few stragglers letting him know that the town was now empty of life. He made his way back towards the dock slowly, surveying the damage. The bar where he'd found the majority of the men had erupted into a roaring blaze that would probably have to wait to burn out naturally since he didn't particularly want to try using the water manipulation exercise to move a large mass of water for it and he didn't really know any other water jutsu. The ship with the citizens of Wave pulled up to the dock shortly after Naruto arrived.

Haku was the first off the ship, not even waiting for it to get settled good before jumping down onto the pier beside the blond. "You're finished?" he asked quietly, getting a nod. Leaning against the crate the blond was sitting on top of, Haku watched as the former prisoners left the ship and organized a fire brigade to put out the fire Naruto had set. _'This was not a battle, so much as it was a mass slaughter,'_ the older boy mused. _'No, they'd have had to be human for that. Those people were nothing but human waste. This was pest control,'_ the boy corrected himself. "Do you feel you have avenged Tazuna-san's murder?"

Haku almost repeated himself some time later, thinking perhaps the blond hadn't heard him, when Naruto spoke. "No," the boy answered slowly. After a pause, he elaborated. "I don't think it was revenge I wanted."

"What then?"

Naruto shrugged. "I don't know."

The fox stirred before putting its two ryo in, sending the blond the mental impression of a smirk. **That which redeems, consumes.**

"Redemption?" the blond asked quietly, thinking it over. Perhaps, in this case, the fox was right. Maybe this slaughter—for that is exactly what it had been—had been less about avenging Tazuna and more about redeeming himself for failing to finish the job the first time.

"Then do you feel redeemed?" Haku asked, getting a head shake in the negative as his answer.

"What you said when we first met? Maybe you were right," he said some time later. "Ninja are tools, even if we don't want to be. And a tool that can't do the job right the first time is useless."

"'Never cut twice' is a good philosophy for a ninja to hold," Haku agreed with a nod. "However, I was wrong. _You_ showed me that. Ninja are tools, yes, but we are more. If performing the mission correctly would mean going against everything you believe in, then what do you fight for at that point? Money? That makes you no better than a mercenary."

"I feel sick," the blond said suddenly, stumbling off the crate and barely keeping himself from falling off the edge of the pier as he began to heave violently. Nearly five minutes of dry-heaves later, the boy collapsed onto his backside and exhaled in exhaustion. "I need a bath," he said, just now noticing the blood and bits covering his clothes and skin. He now realized that ninja combat was not pretty, clean, or in any way neat most of the time. Even seeing others getting their hands dirty on the job had not caused that fact to sink in as much as it did now. The blond blinked as a hand entered his field of vision.

"Come. We will try to find a place for you to bathe and then rest," Haku said, grasping the blond boy's hand in his own and hoisting him to his feet. "Don't lose sight of what is important, Naruto-kun. You may have to find a new dream, if you can not become Hokage," Haku paused as the shorter boy righted himself and looked up at him in confusion, his eyes asking for help where he could not bring his mouth to do so. "Focus on the people precious to you. They are what matters most. Not attaining more rank, not accumulating fame or fortune, not even forcing people set their ways to see you for you and not for the burden you carry matter as much as protecting the people who already do."

The pair found Tsunami and Inari inside the town, the little boy looking sheepish at the blond. "Naruto-niichan," he started, only for Naruto to wave him off.

"I'm sorry I hit you Inari," the boy apologized.

"Why don't the two of you come back home with us?" Tsunami invited the pair.

"I would not wish to impose," Haku started to decline, only to have Tsunami shake her head.

"It's no imposition, really," she said, smiling. "Please, I insist."

The walk back to Tazuna's—now Tsunami's—home was spent in silence. When they arrived, Tsunami sent the blond to the bathroom to get cleaned up, waiting outside the door for him to hand her his soiled clothes. "I will take care of them," Haku told the mother and widow, wishing to spare her having to deal with blood-soaked clothes. He was thankful that he'd had the foresight to clean the house of signs of Tazuna's death while Naruto had been digging the bridge builder's grave. Tsunami thanked the boy and showed him where the wash basin was before going to bed, too emotionally wiped to stay awake or stay composed in front of anyone for much longer.

"Here," Naruto announced, holding out a bundle of clothes with one arm from inside the bathroom. The arm itself was still pink with residual blood. Taking the clothes from the blond, Haku left to go soak them while Naruto went about cleaning himself. When he was finished, he stepped out of the bathroom in only his boxers and sent a clone to take care of his clothes while he followed Haku towards the spare futons that had been set out for them in the guest room.

Naruto spent the entire next day and over half of the day after helping the citizens of Wave repair the damage the mercenaries had done—Haku never far from the blond boy's side. Even with the tremendous number of clones he was able to create, they were all just as unskilled at performing such repairs as he was and had to be showed what to do each step of the way before they could really help more than with heavy lifting or moving around lots of things at once. At sunset of the second day of work one of the clones popped, sending the memory of a familiar ship coming into port to all the others. Naruto, followed closely by Haku, made their way to the pier where the ship was just pulling in. Seeing where the mast had snapped near the deck and had then somehow been set upright beside the snapped base and lashed to it, the blond whistled. "What happened there?" he wondered, though upon thinking it he felt the memory from a clone he hadn't created surface. One of the clones of the clone he'd set to watch Yukie had witnessed the mast snap in the storm before slipping on the slick deck and smashing its head against the railing and dispersing.

Before the ship even came to a halt, a cry of "Naruto-kun!" drew his attention upwards to where Hinata had taken a flying leap off the ship straight at the blond. Opening his arms, he caught the girl on reflex and stumbled back, nearly sending the pair of them into the drink in the process.

"Did you miss me Hinata-chan?" the boy teased, laughing.

Naruto stopped laughing when the girl looked up from where she'd buried her face in his chest, tear-filled eyes looking into his own. "Yes!" the girl nearly shouted. Half a second later, she'd stood on tiptoe and crushed her lips to his own. Naruto let out a startled 'mmf!,' movement catching his eye as he saw the clone he'd left regarding him with a strange look.

"Baka," she muttered, then dispersed. The last couple of days worth of experience from the Naruko-clone slammed into Naruto and the group of active clones like a ton of bricks.

"I— wha...?" Naruto stammered in confusion for a moment before everything clicked. "I missed you too, Hinata-chan," the blond said quietly, smiling down at the slightly shorter girl. His gaze shifted up towards where Naruko had stood a moment ago, a slight frown forming on his lips. _'I was jealous of myself?'_ he wondered quietly before shrugging the thought off.

"I see you've found your precious person," Haku pointed out softly from off to the side as the other kunoichi disembarked the ship to find out what had gone on here.

Ignoring the questions sent at him by the other members of Team Hokage for the moment, Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I think I have."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** The mass murder scene didn't go quite how I had planned, but it did go nicely enough that I'm satisfied with it.

In case you're wondering, no, Naruto has not just gone dark. Nor is he quite to the point where I would call him jaded, either. He has had to come to grips with certain realities and necessities of the ninja world and will eventually get everything sorted out. No, Naruto is not a hardened killer either. However, as explained, one of the things that pisses the boy off to no end is when his precious people get hurt. I don't believe he would snap and kill everyone if something happened to one of them—at least not in this story. No, he'd do it quite intentionally. Especially now if it were a member of Team Hokage and most especially if it were Hinata. Not quite to the point of 'I will rip out your lungs and feed them to you' yet, but getting there. Even in canon he's obsessively overprotective of his friends.

I could have stretched this chapter into two, but decided I'd rather have one very long one as opposed to one almost-normal length and one slightly shorter. I think I was off on the number of chapters it would take to clear Snow and Wave. I can see the next chapter finishing it off it I wanted to, but I will try to go with two more chapters. And then it's back to Fire Country.

On Naruto's methods of taking care of business: If you're wondering why he didn't use Tsunade's super strength technique yet, it's because he hasn't quite figured it out yet. Why didn't Naruto use jutsu? Two reasons: he wanted to do it by hand as it was more personal that way and, as stated, he doesn't know many to begin with and those he does could have caused too much damage to a nation that had seen two oppressions/occupations and had yet to even recover from the first before they were hit with the second. That rules out summons. How did Naruto use high-level nature manipulation? He's been working on nature manipulation since about chapter three and I haven't showed anything on it since. He's bound to have improved since then, and since Naruto's natural inclination is towards wind (which I won't change from canon, he'll just find it mad easier than the others to master) it makes sense he would be much further along with that than anything else. If you don't agree, I'm sorry, but that's the way it is. Also, I have a forum for a reason: if you feel the need to ask me something, I'm much more likely to respond there where everyone else can see the answer than in a PM where I'll have to repeat it multiple times for other people with the same question.

Thanks goes out to Sin Saiori for pre-reading the Wave/Snow arc for me. He pointed out a few things he felt didn't seem to get across well enough--such as Naruto's reaction to Haku in the first writing of this. Personally, I think the story turned out much better than it would have thanks to the second opinion.

Lucky you, I decided to release this one early. Already have the next chapter done and just finished writing 17, but still need to edit it later. Moving on to writing 18 at the moment.

Music for this chapter: The massacre: In The House/In a Heartbeat - John Murphy - 28 Days Later soundtrack.


	16. The Plan That Failed and

**The Missing Hokage**

**16: The Plan That Failed and the Almost-Failed Plan**

* * *

Temari yawned as she made her way into Otafuku Gai. Her stomach grumbling, she decided her first stop was going to have to be somewhere to get something to eat. Afterwards, she would find a hotel and spend the rest of the afternoon soaking in a bath if this town didn't have hot springs. She followed her nose towards the smell of food, trying to decide if she should splurge or just get something fast and cheap so she could get to her bath. A flash of orange and yellow up the street caught her eye, drawing her attention to a familiar blond entering a building some distance away. _'Well, at least I know they're here,'_ she mused, deciding to put off food for the moment to make contact with the boy her brother was so interested in.

Walking towards the building she'd seen the boy go into—what looked like a ninja surplus store from the outside, though like any respectable ninja-specific establishment it wasn't labeled as such—she turned her sharp mind towards the boy in question. That her brother had taken an interest in someone and that person still drew breath was amazing in and of itself. The fact that her brother had seemingly stopped his favorite past-time of murdering anyone he came across that even vaguely caught his attention right after suffering a total defeat at the hands of the blond boy was even more amazing. The blond in question had stood toe-to-toad as it were with Shukaku and not only survived but _won_... against _her brother_ of all people! The same little red-headed killing machine that she had alternately worried over and frequently plagued her nightmares, that had terrorized their entire village for almost as long as she could remember, had killed more men than most ninja three times his age.

Temari honestly didn't know what to think about Uzumaki Naruto. Sure, he seemed like a nice enough person—if a bit stupid and loud. However, anyone who could so completely shut Gaara down could not _possibly_ be entirely human. Especially someone younger than her. Gaara had said that the Uzumaki understood him better than anyone ever had before, possibly more so than anyone possibly could. If that meant what Temari suspected it did, then she was left wondering how he had come out the other side of such a life with his sanity intact. And yet he seemed perfectly sane—or at least within reasonable tolerances as far as ninja went.

The Suna kunoichi put away those thoughts for the moment and returned her mind to her mission as she pushed open the door she had seen the blond boy walk inside... and paused halfway inside the door. Across the room stood a blonde that could have passed for the boy's twin: hair done up in long twin pig-tails that fell down her back, a dark red tee-shirt with a black spiral, a black short skirt, and even the same blue eyes and faint whisker markings adorning each cheek. The Jiei hitai-ate around her neck drew Temari's eyes as the blond looked up from her manga—something with a pink cover that looked decidedly girly even from this distance—staring at Temari for a moment before recognition lit her eyes. "Oh! Uh... Gaara's sister. Temari, right?" the blonde asked.

Temari nodded warily, stepping fully into the shop and looking around. "Yeah," she answered slowly. "Did Uzumaki Naruto just come in here?"

The girl behind the counter snickered, eyes lighting up in mischief and a distinctly foxy and disturbingly familiar grin spread across her face. "Yup."

After a moment of looking the other blonde over, Temari asked, "Are the two of you related?"

"You could say that," the girl answered and Temari swore she could hear barely contained laughter in her voice. "So, whatcha need? You're a long way from Suna."

"I need to speak with your... brother? cousin? ...With Naruto about that, actually. If you don't mind," the Suna kunoichi answered.

"I don't mind," the girl snickered, biting her lip to keep her amusement contained. "NARUTO!" the girl yelled towards a door to the back of the shop. "Visitor!"

A moment later, the blond Temari had been looking for poked his head out of the back door. "Can't you handle it? We're kinda busy back here," the boy asked. Seeing Naruko shake her head and point towards Temari, the boy looked between the two for a moment before realization dawned in his eyes and he grinned—the same foxy look Temari saw mirrored on the girl. Though she couldn't quite place her finger on why, Temari had the distinct impression something was afoot.

"She came all the way from Suna to see _Naruto_, it's only polite to see what she wants," the girl giggled.

"So," Naruto started, dragging out the 'o,' "whatcha need?"

Temari blinked, wondering if she was perhaps hearing an echo. Shaking off the oddity the pair presented, she said, "Kazekage-sama... well, the acting Kazekage, sent me here to negotiate an alliance with Tsunade-sama's group. I think, anyway. Not entirely sure what he wants me to do here aside from liaise between you and Suna," she said, the last bit murmured in uncertainty. It wasn't like her brother to be as intentionally vague as he had, or to leave his orders quite as open-ended as they seemed. "Is Tsunade-sama around? It'd probably be best if I just went straight to her."

Both the other blonds shook their heads. "Nope," Naruko answered. "Team Hokage is going to Snow. Well, they were anyway," she mused.

"Then why are you still here?" Temari asked the boy.

Naruto grinned. "I'm not." Seeing her confused look, he grinned just a little wider. "We're just clones."

At that moment, a commotion from behind the still partly open door drew Temari's attention. "You idiot, you're doing it wrong!" a man yelled, annoyance obvious in his voice. "You're wasting material!"

"I wanted to see if there was a better way of doing it!" a second voice yelled back, louder. It sounded too similar to the blond boy not to be his own voice, leaving Temari to assume it was another clone.

The sound of something crashing against the wall echoed through the store. "Screw around on your own time and money, you brat! I can't afford to waste money on the material you're destroying."

"We've got the cash to replace it, stop your yapping!"

"Yeah, well you said yourself that THEY'RE OUT of the stuff I need for this order, so if you screw up any more we won't make the deadline."

"I said shut your mouth, old man! It'll be fine!"

"Mouthy brat!"

Temari eyed the pair of blonds in front of her as the argument continued behind the door. The girl had the decency to blush while Naruto looked sheepish and rubbed the back of his head. "You old fart, I'll take you on right here, right now!" Naruto's voice yelled from behind the door. A moment later, there was a crash and a muffled poof! of a clone exploding.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Hang on a second," he groaned, turning around and poking his head into the still-open door. "Knock it off!" he yelled, then quickly pulled his head back in and slammed the door. Temari swore she heard the sound of a bladed weapon slamming home in the door and vibrating on the other side. "Sorry about that," Naruto grinned.

Temari blinked off the absurdity of the situation and shook her head. "Right... So, any idea when they... when you'll be back?"

Naruto and the blond girl both shrugged. "Dunno," both answered simultaneously before Naruto shot his sister/cousin/relative a glare and continued himself. "Hang on a second and I'll ask," he said, bringing his hands up into the seal for kage bunshin. A clone popped into existence and immediately dispersed.

"What do you mean, 'you'll ask'? They're halfway there by now, right? Have you got some sort of human-summoning scroll that lets clones go back and forth?"

The blond shook his head. "No, but... that's a _really_ good idea. Thanks!" he grinned.

* * *

Haku sighed, wondering just how it was that he had wound up here. Feeling somewhat queasy, he downed a gulp of water from the glass in his hand and wished he'd thought to find some herbs for seasickness. _'How is it that someone born in the Land of Water can get seasick?'_ he mused, regarding the Sannin sitting across from him.

"Take it off," Tsunade commanded, motioning towards his hakama and shirt. After the group of kunoichi made port, they had gotten Naruto to relate the events from his being thrown overboard to their arrival and then went about surveying the damage done by Naruto during his attack. After helping to replace the mast of the ship they were traveling in, the group had stepped aside and talked amongst themselves for a few moments before the ship was to leave port—leaving him with the bun-haired girl, Tenten. As the others boarded, Tsunade had grabbed him by the upper arm and very effectively dragged him aboard and below deck.

Seeing the woman was growing impatient, Haku slowly untied his obi before setting it aside, where it was quickly followed by his mid-sleeve hakama and long-sleeved sweater. Clad in only his sandals, loose pants, and the bandages around his chest he resumed his seat across from the Sannin. "Is this sufficient?" he asked quietly, not wanting to undo the bindings.

Tsunade shook her head. "No, the bandages need to come off too."

"But—"

"I can't do anything about it if I can't see the wound," Tsunade explained. Not giving the boy a chance to protest further, she decided to go with the same approach she'd use for Naruto—do what she wanted anyway and pound him if he protested further. She extended her hand and ran her finger down the middle of the bandages, a small chakra scalpel slicing through them and parting them cleanly down the middle. "I see."

Haku cringed. "No good?"

Tsunade shook her head, her hands glowing with chakra as she held them over the still healing chidori wound. "That depends," she answered slowly. After a moment, she continued. "Luckily for you, the chakra coils around your heart are undamaged. Was Kakashi actually trying to kill you with this?"

Haku shook his head. "No, I took the blow for Zabuza-sama. He did not register my presence until it was too late."

Tsunade nodded. "Well, I _think_ I can get you back to where you can use chakra again. It's going to take a while to heal naturally before you can even attempt to perform jutsu without damaging yourself, if it works."

"You would do this for me?"

"No," Tsunade shook her head. "I'd do it for Naruto."

"I see," Haku nodded. "When can you...?"

Tsunade shrugged, releasing her jutsu and standing. "Tomorrow," she said, tossing the boy a fresh roll of bandages. "I will do this on one condition."

Hearing the serious tone of her voice, Haku looked up from where he was attempting to rewrap his chest. "Yes?"

"If you betray us or if you intentionally hurt Naruto, I'll kill you myself," the Sannin announced her terms quietly. Seeing Haku nod, she changed the subject. "How much do you know about your bloodline?"

"Not much, simply that like all bloodlines it was feared in my home land," Haku answered. "Why?"

"It's what kept you alive."

"I see," Haku said quietly. _'So, this cursed bloodline is good for more than simply killing after all.'_

"Oh, one last thing," Tsunade said, catching the boy's attention. "Don't let wandering medics from villages you don't recognize treat your wounds next time, hmm? You would have been healed by now if Kabuto didn't find it amusing for whatever reason to prolong your suffering by slowing your rate of cellular division around that area." With that, she left the room she had decided to conduct her exam in and slid the door closed before making her way back towards the room she shared with the rest of her team.

Haku reentered the room shortly after Tsunade, looking around for a place to sit since the room was pretty cramped. Just as he was about to sit down, Naruto—who had been talking quietly to Hinata at the time—burst out laughing, drawing everyone's attention. "Oh man, that's good," the boy snickered, his face splitting into the familiar foxy grin.

"Care to let the rest of us in on the joke?" Anko asked, rolling her eyes at his antics.

Beside Naruto and Hinata—who currently occupied the space of the boy's lap—Tenten shook her head. "It can't be that funny, can it?"

"It is!" the boy nearly shouted, cackling his head off again.

"Spit it out, brat," Tsunade urged.

"Ok, ok," Naruto agreed, holding up a hand to ask them to wait a moment while he regained his composure somewhat. "Temari's in Otafuku Gai."

"The clones you left are still there?" Shizune asked, impressed.

Naruto nodded. "Uh huh. She says the new Kazekage sent her to talk to us. I told her where we were going, so she wants to know when she can expect us back."

Tsunade shrugged. "I don't know. It will be a week at the earliest. Probably later."

Nodding, Naruto created and dispelled a clone to relay the message. Now aware that they were still where he'd left them, Naruto was surprised that the clones in Otafuku Gai were still... stable, for lack of a better word. He had begun to suspect that the clones he left out for extended periods of time were beginning to sort of... go weird, since he couldn't think of any way to really explain the feeling. Perhaps, knowing they were clones, they intentionally started acting without regard for the consequences after a certain amount of time. It wasn't always anything huge, but it was almost always there. The Naruko-clone he'd left with Yukie before he had taken the sojourn to Wave was a good example of what happened when a clone went rogue. While he actually liked the results of that particular clone's actions, it had done things that Naruto himself would probably not have done. Thinking back, he realized that the biggest changes in behavior were from the Naruko-clones. Maybe the clone using their female form just got too into the role sometimes. Then again, that would mean that he was the one doing all of it and he had only himself to blame.

Naruto was thankful for the interruption to that train of thought as it had been making his head hurt. "Not seeing what's so funny about the fan-girl," Tenten pointed out, not particularly happy hearing about the blonde from Suna but willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Shaking his head, the boy grinned. "She's never met Naruko," he said around his still subsiding snickers.

"Wait, you mean the oiroke henge?" Anko asked. Seeing the boy nod, she began howling with laughter. Naruto was not the only person with a mind for pranking and Anko instantly saw the possibilities presented.

"What did you do, Naruto-kun?" Shizune asked, looking between the madly laughing special-jonin and the blond boy who looked ready to crack up again at any moment.

"Not much," Naruto denied. Seeing their skeptical looks, he shrugged. "I might have let her convince herself I'm my own sister."

Seeing the other kunoichi breaking down into various stages of laughter—Anko still rolling on the floor, Tsunade chuckling, Shizune giggling like a school girl, Tenten almost to the point of joining Anko, and Hinata hiding her giggles behind a hand—Haku asked, "I do not understand. What is an 'oiroke henge?'"

Grinning from under Hinata, Naruto applied the clothed Naruko-henge. "Hi," Naruko called across the room towards Haku, dragging out the 'i' in the way she knew from being forced to use the jutsu on Ero-sennin and other perverts would send men reeling. Above the boy-turned-girl, Hinata's giggles grew louder as she clamped her other hand over her mouth upon seeing Haku's reaction.

"I see," the boy nodded, a smile spreading across his face. It was a tactic he could appreciate, after all, as he was often mistaken for one gender or the other depending on how he was dressed and how he wore his hair. Naruto himself had accused Haku of being female when they first met.

Sobering up for a moment, Tsunade turned to regard Tenten. "It's about time someone checked on Yukie and the others."

"What?" Tenten groaned. "I'm stuck with Hime-duty?" she asked, annoyed. Getting a nod and an apologetic look from Tsunade, she sighed and stood. "Fine, fine," she grumbled, sliding the door open and closed as she left the room.

"Haku-san," Shizune asked, getting the boy's attention. "Would you mind going with her?"

Haku smiled. "If you wish to speak alone, you should simply say so. I will give you your privacy, however," the boy nodded, exiting the room and finding Tenten standing at the hatch. He followed her out and took up a position nearby to watch over the deck and observe the crew shooting more footage.

Regarding the dark-haired boy from the corner of her eye, Tenten licked her lips. _'He's kind of cute, in a girlish way. I'd have to say he beats out Naruto in the looks department at the moment, though Naruko has him beat by a mile if we're judging him as a girl,'_ she mused, watching him walk across the deck to get a better view of the crew. Noting the way he moved, she frowned slightly as something tickled the back of her mind. He was so graceful—even _Neji_ looked almost sloppy in comparison. _'It's hard to tell he's really a boy sometimes. And Naruto spends half his time as Naruko now that it's almost embarrassing that he acts the part better than _I _do,'_ she thought, brushing off the odd feeling she had.

Below deck, Tsunade turned her attention back towards Naruto—or Naruko, rather, as the blonde had yet to change back. Above the blonde, Hinata didn't look as though she minded in the least. "So, about that henge," Tsunade started.

Naruko groaned. "I've explained it a dozen times," she whined. "I don't know! I just do it."

"Please explain it again, Naruko-chan," Shizune asked.

Sitting up from the floor finally, Anko grinned. "We're waiting," she teased.

"You know the seals," she pointed out, getting nods all around. "Ok, good. I get to skip that part. _Yay,_" she murmured sarcastically, only Hinata catching it and giggling softly in response.

"Tell us the theory again," Tsunade instructed.

"I. Don't. Know!" Naruko ground out, growing frustrated already. "It should be easy! It just works."

"Nope," Anko shook her head. "Not for me. Anyone else?"

The other kunoichi shook their heads. Shizune said, "How is it supposed to work, Naruko-chan? What do you do to use the technique?"

Giving up on getting out of having to try to explain the jutsu and failing to do so again, Naruko sighed in defeat. "I just do it, just like you're supposed to for a normal henge. Imagine what you want to transform into, apply chakra to seals, release chakra, and presto-changeo you're transformed."

"It doesn't work like that for us," Anko denied.

Tsunade nodded. "Are you molding chakra differently than the seals require? Are you skipping a seal and just molding chakra for it seallessly anyway?"

"No," the blonde pouted. "Maybe you're just thinking about it too hard," she grumbled quietly.

Atop the blonde, Hinata blinked. "Naruko-chan?" she asked, shifting so she sat with her side facing the blonde as opposed to her back. "What do you mean?"

"Like I said, I just do it. I don't think about it, I don't worry about what seal does what or whether I'm using too much chakra or not. It just works."

"It doesn't work like that. It can't," Tsunade denied. "It causes internal and external changes that you _must_ be conscious of in order to complete properly without killing yourself. Hell, it even alters your _mass!_ There's no way you can _not_ focus on what you're doing when you activate it."

"I'm telling you, you just channel the damn chakra and let the jutsu do the work for that crap!" the blonde girl growled out.

"And I'm telling you, it _doesn't work like that!_" Tsunade growled back. "There is nothing in those seals for altering mass, weight, density, or anything else purely physical—not to mention the internal changes of muscle and tissue from one form to another."

Growing further frustrated, the blonde forced her mind to focus on the technique. Maybe they just weren't doing it right? Maybe she really was wrong about the seals? Frowning, she focused on that last aspect. _'Well, maybe...'_ she mused. Carefully shifting Hinata off of her lap—much to the smaller girl's disappointment—Naruko dug around in her pockets for a scroll. Not finding anything, she addressed the group at large. "I've got an idea. Give me some paper and a pen," she said. Accepting the items from Shizune, she quickly scrawled out the physical seals for the jutsu in question. "Let's hope this works," she murmured. She knew it should, since she'd seen written copies of some jutsu—such as kuchiyose—work before, and Temari had brought up a good idea Naruto would have to try later. Applying chakra to the seal, she was surrounded by a small cloud of chakra and smoke. When it cleared, Naruto was looking back out at the group. "You try it," he said, passing the paper to Tsunade.

Rolling her eyes, Tsunade placed her hand over the seal and applied chakra. Nothing happened. "Told you so," she said, passing it to Anko to repeat the process. "It's something you're doing that's not in the seals."

"Well I don't know what I'm doing different that you're not," the blond shrugged.

Accepting the paper and trying the jutsu herself, Hinata sighed when nothing happened. "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. It's not working for me either," she said, passing the paper to Shizune so the woman could destroy it.

"Have you tried to teach this jutsu to anyone else?" Anko asked, wondering if maybe it was just them.

Naruto nodded. "Konohamaru got it the first day," he grumbled. "He sucked at making girls, but the basic jutsu worked."

"You taught Sarutobi Konohamaru oiroke no jutsu?" Shizune asked, narrowing her eyes at the blond.

Gulping, Naruto nodded. "Yeah," he answered quietly. Seeing the medic glare, he quickly continued. "It was to piss off that closet pervert Ebisu!"

Naruto was saved as the door to their cabin opened and Yukie entered, followed closely by Tenten and Haku. "They finished shooting for the day," Tenten announced unnecessarily, plopping down beside Hinata as Yukie saw down on the futon she'd left unrolled and observed the blond annoyance.

Sighting the woman, Naruto's smirk towards her turned devious. Bugging the hell out of _Hime-chan_ was sure to relieve some frustration. After a moment, he glanced over towards Shizune as he remembered that she and Naruko still needed to talk. Catching Shizune's eyes, she sent the older kunoichi a pleading look, silently asking her not to force him to have to ask again in front of everyone. Shizune sighed. Standing, she snagged Naruto by the hand and helped him stand before pulling him from the room. "We'll be right back," Shizune almost groaned in dread.

A moment after the door slid shut, it opened again and Naruto made his way back into the room. Anko blinked. "What was that all about?" she asked as the blond sat down between Tenten and Hinata again. Naruto stuck out his tongue in answer and the group collectively shrugged it off, though Anko had an idea as to what it was.

* * *

"They've got no clue when they'll be back. Earliest guess is next week. Sorry you came all this way for nothing."

Temari shook her head. "No, it's ok. I really don't mind being away from home for a while." Stretching her arms out over her head, she yawned again and mumbled, "I need a nap." Louder, she said, "Well, I guess I'll go find a hotel to stay in for a while. Later."

"Hey, wait!" the near-twin of the boy called, stopping Temari in her tracks. "You're going to stay in a hotel?" she asked, getting a nod. "For over a week?" Another nod came in answer. Some quick math on the register's calculator and the girl frowned before looking back up and sending Temari that foxy grin again. "We've got a few spare rooms. Why don't you stay with us?"

"Are you sure?" Temari asked, looking between the two. Getting a nod from both, she asked again just to make sure. "You really don't mind?"

"Nope. The only other person there right now is Isaribi. She's nice, you'd like her," the blond boy said before glancing towards a clock over the wall. "She's got the afternoon shift here, so she should be in in an hour or so." After trying to find employment at one of the local casino/gambling dens and coming back to tell Naruto about the experience, Naruto had essentially forbidden her from working there and somehow wheedled Dane into hiring her on for the actual purpose of tending the store while the ex-ninja-turned-tailor worked on custom orders and when Naruto/Naruko got bored of register work. Naruto had nearly gone down there and beat the hell out of the hiring manager when Isaribi had told him that the man suggested she would be perfect for certain clientele who liked the company of... _younger_ waitresses.

Thinking the invitation over, Temari nodded. As long as they didn't think she was just freeloading then she was fine with crashing with them until Tsunade came back. It also meant that since she'd been given free reign to charge the tab for the hotel and her food to the village treasury, she could forge a hotel receipt and pocket the cash for herself. Even the former Kazekage's daughter and current acting Kazekage's sister needed some extra spending money—they weren't a rich family, after all. "Thanks, I really appreciate your hospitality," she smiled, giving the pair a short bow out of formality. "So," she grinned, getting off the subject of business and on to the subject of pleasure—at least for her. "This town have a hot spring?"

"It does, but it's not that great. We rarely ever use it actually," Naruko answered.

Naruto picked up where the girl left off. "We've got one of those massive indoor communal bath things. Well, ok, it's not _massive_, but it seats about a dozen people. Not that I get to use the thing much, since I usually use the upstairs bath," the boy shrugged.

"Really?" Temari asked, her interest piqued. This reassignment was looking better already. Seeing the blonds nod, she grinned. "Mind showing me?" she asked of the other girl.

Trading a look with Naruto, Naruko shrugged. "Sure, I don't mind," she said, marking the page in her manga and placing it under the counter. Vaulting over the counter, she blinked when Temari took her by the arm and nearly dragged her out of the store. Once the door had closed behind them and Naruto was sure they were gone, he snickered and applied the Naruko-henge. "Oh, this is going to be good," she snickered, snagging her manga and picking up where the other Naruko had left off. After all, if she had to stand here in Naruko-form to better handle customers, then she had to at least look and act the part. She had found that for some reason, customers preferred a younger—but not _too_ young—girl to interact with over a boy, and even over Dane himself. Customers interacting with Naruko while the older, more experienced Dane acted as store owner and occasionally provided suggestions quietly in the background was the best combination, apparently.

Back with Temari, the original Otafuku Gai Naruko-clone pointed the older kunoichi towards Team Hokage's home, nearly having to run to keep up. "What's the rush?" Naruko asked, sending Temari a questioning look.

Temari had the decency to look sheepish, but didn't slow her pace any. "I haven't had a bath in over a month," the older girl explained.

Naruko wrinkled her nose. "Eww."

The Suna kunoichi rolled her eyes. "Not like that. Suna is in the middle of the desert, so we have to ration water. Showers are short and usually all we're allowed. Actual baths are few and far between. What I mean is that I haven't had a chance to actually soak in that long. I'm clean damnit," she nearly growled at the end as Naruko continued wrinkling her nose. Giving it a moment of thought, Temari conceded, "Well, as clean as one can be with crappy cold water baths on the road."

"Those don't bother me that much," Naruko shrugged.

After a few moments more of hurried walking, Temari asked, "I didn't catch your name. In fact, how did you know who I was from sight, since we've never met before? Let alone who my little brother is."

The other blonde girl shrugged. "Naruto talks about his friends a lot," she grinned, not actually outright lying since Naruto _did_ talk about his friends to pretty much anyone who wanted to listen. She simply omitted the fact that she was really Naruto. Continuing her merry little dance around the truth, the girl added, "You can call me Naruko."

"Uzumaki?" Temari asked, getting a nod and a seemingly ever-widening grin in answer. In fact, that grin was beginning to disturb her just a little. "Naruto and Naruko huh?" she mused, getting a nod though she hadn't actually meant it as a question. "You're twins," Temari surmised.

Naruko nearly wet herself trying not to burst out laughing. Through some god-like act of self-control, she managed to nod and croak out "Something like that," around a giggle. After all, it was true in a sense.

"How can it be 'something like that'? It either is that or it isn't, right?" Temari asked, confusion written on her face. Again, she felt like she was the victim of some sort of prank on the pair's part, but was left in the dark as to the nature of the prank itself. Narrowing her eyes, she vowed to get to the bottom of this. As Team Hokage's home came into view, the girl hit upon a possible solution. If the Narutos in the shop had been clones, perhaps this one was simply a clone with a henge applied—and there were two ways to test that theory. The direct approach would be to simply punch the other blonde and see if she dispersed. Temari discarded that idea though, as she didn't want to alienate herself if the girl proved to be real and she wound up accidentally offending her. The other idea was much, much more devious. She nearly smirked as she gave herself the green light to put it into motion.

"Well, we're here," Naruko announced, sliding the door open and toeing off her sandals as she made her way inside. Temari followed close behind, emulating the slightly shorter girl and looking around. While not extravagant or even new, the home was nice and radiated a sense of comfort and security. "We're back!" Naruko announced loudly, making her way into the main/living room and finding Isaribi curled up on the couch with a medical text on her lap and a notebook off to the side.

"Oh, is it time for my shift already?" the fish-girl asked, getting a nod from Naruko.

"Who's she?"

"Oh, right! This is Sabaku no Temari. She's visiting from Suna and will be staying here for a while. Until Tsunade comes back, at least," Naruko answered, turning towards Temari. "Temari, this is Isaribi."

"Hi," the Suna kunoichi greeted casually.

Standing from the couch, Isaribi gathered her book and notebook and made her way past Naruko. "I'll be back later. What are we having tonight?"

Naruko shrugged. "Hadn't thought about it, really."

"No ramen," Isaribi nearly growled. "You've had it almost every night you've cooked since the others left."

The blonde snickered. "Sure, sure. I'll think up something different."

"One more thing you and your 'brother' have in common?" Temari asked, having to force herself to keep the sarcasm out of her voice given her current train of thought regarding the blonde.

Grinning, Naruko nodded. "We love ramen," she answered simply and Temari finally caught on to her choice of wording.

_'Every time I've asked something like that, she's given answers that can be openly interpreted to have many meanings. In this case, by 'we' she could genuinely mean she and Naruto love the stuff. Or she could mean she and Naruto love the stuff because she _is _Naruto,'_ Temari thought, smiling down at the slightly-shorter blonde. "Do you mind showing me to the guest room first? I'd like to unpack before taking a bath."

The fox-faced girl shrugged, leading Temari upstairs and past Tenten's room to the one on the end of the hall. Sliding the door open, she found it to be empty and absent of signs of use save for a rolled futon in one corner. "This is it," she grinned.

Slinging her fan off her back, Temari placed it into the corner of the room with the futon. She then pulled out a scroll from her obi and opened it, unsealing a small stack of neatly folded clothes. Looking around, she spotted a desk and on top of it, a pen and notepad. "I have to send a message to the Kazekage informing him of my arrival. You mind waiting?"

"No, go ahead," Naruko answered, leaning against the door frame to watch Temari, who sat down at the small desk and quickly made out her message. Satisfied with it, she folded it down and stamped it with a small personal seal. Biting her thumb, she quickly sealed and slapped her hands onto the desk top. Naruko raised an eyebrow as a small cloud of smoke obscured the top of the desk momentarily before a small... weasel? carrying a sickle looked up towards Temari.

"Hi," it greeted. "Did you need me to kill something?"

Temari shook her head, holding out the letter. "Not right now. I need you to take this back to Suna and the Kazekage. If someone tries to stop you, you can kill them though."

"Great!" the weasel chirped as Temari opened the window for it. "Later!" it called, disappearing out the window almost faster than Naruko could track.

The fox-faced blonde blinked. "Was that a weasel summoning scroll?" she asked innocently, getting a nod in response. The girl had to force herself not to smirk. _'Oh, I wants,'_ she thought, nearly drooling at the prospect of summons with that kind of speed. Even if they couldn't be ridden, they were obscenely fast if that one was anything to judge by. And they probably all wielded bladed weapons of some sort. That kind of summon called en mass could really cause some damage. The blonde frowned, thinking back to the night Naruto had taken his first steps towards becoming a true shinobi. That kind of summon could make the damage Naruto had done to people just barely above the level of civilians look like a child throwing a tantrum by comparison. If somehow mass summoned, they could wipe an entire ninja village off the map.

Naruko was shaken out of her thoughts when Temari reminded the smaller blonde of her presence. "Now, about that bath?" the girl asked, curious about the look that had passed over other girl's face but not wanting to pry just yet.

Nodding, Naruko lead Temari back downstairs and down a hall past the living room. "Here it is," she said, sliding open the door. She was startled when Temari grabbed her hand and dragged her inside. "Hey, wait! What!?" she stammered, fighting against the other girl's grip for a moment before giving it up as a lost cause if she didn't want to pop.

"I'd like some company," Temari shrugged, toeing the door closed behind them and releasing the smaller blonde. Turning away, she smirked and began to disrobe. As the last of her clothes hit the tiled floor, she turned to regard the other blonde over her shoulder. _'Well, either she's genuine or that is a _really _good henge,'_ Temari mused, noting the blush on Naruko's face. "Coming?" she asked, making her way over to the small shower area and beginning to wash off.

Naruko stood frozen in shock for a moment, eyes slowly turning to regard the nude blonde girl currently using their shower. She found herself unable to tear her eyes away from what they found there. Temari had let her hair down and it was currently plastered against the bare skin of her neck. The Suna kunoichi's body seemed glow in the light of the room. _'This is the second time I've seen a girl nude,'_ she mused, not counting bathing herself. She knew she should just leave—just call off the gag, apologize, and hope either Temari or Gaara didn't decide to kill Naruto.

At least, that's what _Naruto_ would have done. _Naruko_, on the other hand, felt the same foxy smirk from before spreading across her face and found herself nude and in the shower beside the other girl before she'd even realized it. Oh, this was going to be the best prank _of all time_! A double prank—the gender confusion with Temari and getting _Naruto_ in trouble when the shit inevitably hit the fan. She almost felt sorry for herself. "So, how are things back home?" she asked, one final thought occurring to her as she hoped Hinata would understand her reasoning for her current course of action. As she understood it, when a girl was interested in a guy she didn't like other girls looking at the guy she was interested in and vice verse. Then again, she'd learned this observing Sakura and Ino interact over Sasuke, so she could be entirely mistaken.

_'He must be suicidal,'_ Temari thought, turning to regard the other blonde who stood beside her shamelessly in all her glory. She nearly dropped the bottle of soap she'd been holding when she got a good look at the other blonde. The shorter girl's skin was perfectly tanned, the muscles beneath well toned but not overly so. With her hair out of the pigtails, it fell to just below her rear. Her breasts stood proud and firm against her chest, slightly bigger than Temari's own in the Suna kunoichi's estimate. Looking further down, she gulped inaudibly. _'Really good henge my ass! That's impossibly detailed, especially since he's even got the damn water effects down perfectly. That thing must take impossible chakra control,'_ she mused, ignoring the part of her mind that was simply admiring the other blonde because she looked really, really good. She had to hand it to the brat—if that was a henge, she was _damn_ impressed. Oh, he was still going to die but she'd at least let him know how good it was before she killed him.

Temari cut off the shower and shook as much of the water out of her hair as she could before making her way over towards the bath, idly debating whether to leave her hair at its current length or just cut it short to keep from having to worry about it. She answered Naruko's question as she sank down into the warm water and sighed in bliss. The only thing that could make this any better would be having someone work the kinks out of her back and neck. Maybe she could convince Naruko... well, that is if she didn't have to kill the girl and her creator should it turn out to be Naruto under that insanely good henge. "Things are getting better, actually. The Wind Daimyo got the stick out of his fat ass and has stopped outsourcing missions so we're not as broke as we were."

"What about Kankuro and Gaara?" asked the foxy blonde, rinsing the shampoo from her hair.

Temari shrugged. "About the same, really. Kankuro's shut himself in his room to work on a new doll and Gaara... well, I suppose Gaara's changed most of all. He seems," she paused, looking for the right word, "more calm, I guess. Not what anyone would call normal or healthy, for sure, but better than I've ever seen him. He's actually been promoted, too."

"Oh?"

"Mhmm," Temari nodded, closing her eyes and stretching out. "The Elder Council made him the acting Kazekage."

Naruko nearly slipped and smashed her face against the shower floor—and that would have been bad, as it would mean all her hastily made plans for this prank would be straight down the drain. Literally down the drain, in this case. Catching herself at the last second, she managed not to yell as she asked, "What? Kazekage?"

"Uh huh," Temari confirmed from the bath. Hearing the upset tone in the girl's voice, she smirked. That just about confirmed her suspicions, since pretty much everyone that knew Naruto knew of his dream to become Hokage. Temari frowned softly as she realized that it was now an impossible dream. ...Maybe she wouldn't kill the blond after all—only maim him a little.

"Naruto's going to be pissed," Naruko sighed, shutting off the faucet and making her way over to the bath to slip in beside Temari. Seeing the older kunoichi watching out of the corner of one eye, Naruko began running her hands across her hair and pulling the water out of the mass of it with the water manipulation exercise.

Temari's eyes opened as she studied the technique the other blonde was using and the results thereof. "You're going to have to teach me that."

Naruko smirked, throwing her still-damp hair over her shoulder to rest against the edge of the bath while she sank the rest of her body below the water. She hadn't fully dried it since she actually liked feeling it damp, at least as a girl. As Naruto, it was just damp hair. Shrugging it off, she surfaced for air and wiped the water out of her eyes before sending a foxy smirk at Temari. "What'll you trade for it?"

Temari shrugged, causing her breasts to sway in the water and drawing the other blonde's eyes momentarily. She considered the question before she decided to answer. Obviously, if the blonde was willing to ask for something in trade then she would be willing to trade at least minor jutsu. Seeing as this looked like a chakra control exercise, she figured it would be best to repay such a technique with another of the same type, that way neither of them would be left feeling as though they had been shorted on the exchange. "Another chakra control exercise?" she ventured, testing the waters so to speak.

Naruko perked up. _Anything_ at all that could improve his/her/their chakra control was pure gold in their book, and even if it seemed ridiculous—playing with fire, for instance—it would be worth trying at least once to see if anything could come of it. "Deal," she said, holding out a hand for Temari to shake, which the older kunoichi did. "So, want me to show you now or wait?"

"We'll do it later," Temari waved it off. "Right now, I just want to relax and not have to think about work for a while."

Nodding, Naruko settled back in the warm water. "I can relate," she agreed quietly. Despite the odd circumstances, she was glad for the company. All of the Narutos had found their minds wandering back to that night recently whenever they found themselves alone and without something to otherwise focus on. _'Maybe this is why girls travel in packs for everything. They travel together, eat together, go to the bathroom together, bathe together, and even sleep together... Is it because they're naturally closer to each other than men are?'_ she wondered. Spending at least a little time as a girl more often recently had started collectively opening them up to ideas they hadn't previously considered.

Naruko made a mental note to start having Naruto have at least one Naruko-clone out at any time. She wouldn't be able to send the thought along right now, at least. It wouldn't do for Naruto to catch wind of what Naruko had planned. He already knew enough from what one of the Naruto-clones had passed along to know of at least their intent to prank Temari. If he took it the next logical step, it would ruin the both surprise and the entire second prank. Then again, Naruko realized that he and she thought differently at times. Just as Naruto did, Naruko knew that the clones had a bad habit of going weird. Perhaps that's what had happened in her case. If so, she figured it was worth the price of Naruto losing a little sanity if he got a good laugh out of it in the process.

Glancing at the distracted-looking girl from the corner of her left eye, Temari began to put the first phase of her two-part plan to discover the truth about the other girl into action. If she succeeded, she would get to let out some frustration on the little blond brat whenever he got back. Even if she failed, the most she lost from the attempt was embarrassing herself somewhat in front of another girl, which was a sacrifice she was willing to make in this case. "I'm jealous," she murmured loud enough for the other blonde to hear. Once she knew she had Naruko's attention, she said, "You're shorter than me, but it looks like you've actually got a larger bust."

Naruko shrugged, sending the bust in question into an eye-drawing motion just below the water's surface. After a moment, she turned and leered at Temari. "Hinata-chan's are bigger," she snickered before adding, "Especially since she's so much smaller than either of us. ...Well, ok, she's not _that_ much smaller. Just a little."

"Hinata is?" Temari asked. The name sounded vaguely familiar, but she couldn't place it.

Naruko nodded. "Right, you probably haven't really met her. She was in the chuunin exam," she explained, knowing she wouldn't have to elaborate as to which one. "Her cousin Neji beat her in the preliminaries before the third round."

Temari frowned in thought before asking, "The Hyuuga?"

The other blonde nodded again. "Ex-Hyuuga, actually. But yeah, that's Hinata-chan. She's traveling with us too."

"I see," Temari nodded. "Back to what I was saying... What's your size?"

Naruko stared at the older girl blankly. "Huh?"

"Your cup size?"

"My what?" Naruko asked in confusion, her mind running as fast as it could to connect the pieces before she potentially blew her cover. Temari had said she was jealous that Naruko had bigger boobs. She'd mentioned Hinata. Temari asked her size and something about cups. Was the size of one's breasts measured in cups? How did you measure flesh with a liquid measurement system?

That proved it, there was no way she was talking to another girl. ...Well, unless this particular girl had never worn a brassier in her entire life. Deciding to clear that question up, she threw Naruko a bone. "Your bra size?"

Naruko blinked as it clicked into place. Bras had cups to provide support. Right. She knew that, after all Naruto had gotten the basics for oiroke no jutsu from dirty magazines. He'd never paid much attention to the undergarments though. Deciding to wing it, Naruko shook her head and smiled. "I don't wear one."

"You don't? You've never worn one?" Temari asked, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. Sure, it wasn't entirely unheard of but this was one too many in a long line of coincidences.

Naruko shook her head, deciding to throw the other girl off balance a bit. "Nope. Panties either," she supplied with a grin. It was entirely true—neither Naruto nor Naruko would be caught dead in women's panties. Naruto's own boxers, sure. Naruko sometimes even went without undergarments entirely, but that was pretty rare.

Temari blinked. "Hold still," she said, turning to face the shorter girl and cupping one of Naruko's breasts with her hand while her other hand cupped her own. Temari choked when she felt the other girl's nipple stiffen under her palm. _'Not a henge,'_ she decided, absently squeezing the flesh in her hands for a moment before returning to her original position. _'Which means she is exactly as... almost naive as she seems.'_

Sinking lower in the water, Naruko blushed and narrowed her eyes in frustration. She wished Naruto would hurry up and get around to asking Shizune what the hell was going on, since ...well, she supposed it was her fault that she never managed to ask what she'd wanted to while they were on the way to Wave to pick up Naruto after Naruko had confirmed where the boy washed up. "Satisfied now?" she asked, letting a little of the irritation she felt slip through. It had embarrassed Naruto greatly at the time, but Iruka had actually given the boy _The Talk_ shortly before graduation. The problem was that despite being able to transform into a girl, he knew nothing about what was what or anything else. If what she was feeling was what she thought it was, then another _Talk_ was definitely in order, only for Naruko this time.

"Yeah," Temari answered. _'No,'_ the girl thought. _'Damn it! How could I have been wrong? I was certain it was him!'_

* * *

Under Hinata again, Naruto suddenly blushed, looking very uncomfortable. "Oh," he murmured, a small smile crossing his face despite his obvious embarrassment. A moment later, Shizune returned and took the seat she'd been in earlier, looking just as uncomfortable as Naruto.

Anko smirked. "Was that what I think that was?" she asked. Seeing Shizune nod, she turned her head towards Hinata and leered. "Your turn."

Hinata 'eep!'ed when Anko snagged her by the arm and dragged her forcibly from the room. Curious, Tsunade sent a questioning look towards her first apprentice. When Shizune shook her head, Tsunade rolled her eyes and decided to hold her questions for later. "I think I'm going to go grab something to snack on," the blond boy announced several minutes later, leaving the room.

Naruko strolled back inside casually a moment later, as though Naruto hadn't just left. The blonde smirked when she heard a faint murmur of 'Unnatural,' from Yukie's direction. She settled beside Tenten until Hinata and Anko returned, Hinata red in the face and Anko looking abnormally proud of herself. "What did you do to Hinata-chan?" the girl asked suspiciously as Hinata settled down beside her.

Smirking, Anko licked her lips absently and answered, "Nothing you wouldn't like."

Rolling her eyes in annoyance, Naruko stood. "I'm going to the head," she announced.

Almost as soon as the door slid closed, it opened again to admit Naruto. Several eyebrows went up as the blond made his way back over to Hinata, who glanced between him and the door for a moment before smiling. Once the blond sat down, Hinata settled herself back in his lap and turned enough to ask quietly, "Are you having fun?"

Naruto nodded. "Wait for it," he snickered. A moment later, the door slid open to admit Naruko. The pair of blonds regarded each other for a moment. Their actions perfectly mirroring each other, they pointed and yelled, "What are you doing here?!"

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here!" both yelled simultaneously. Out of the corners of their eyes, they could see one of Yukie's eyes beginning to twitch.

"You're in my seat," Naruko growled, slamming the door closed and moving through the small group of kunoichi towards Naruto and Hinata.

Naruto shook his head. "No, I'm in _my_ seat. Find your own."

Reaching down, Naruko took an unprotesting Hinata's hands and helped her to her feet, Naruto jumping up shortly after. "Let's let Hinata-chan decide!" the girl growled at her male counterpart.

Naruto nodded. "Fine! Hinata?"

Looking between the pair and resisting the urge to laugh as she caught sight of Yukie beginning to grow red in the face out of her peripheral vision, she said, "I like both."

"Hear that? She likes me better!" Naruko crowed in triumph, grabbing one of Hinata's arms and pulling the smaller girl against her chest.

Naruto took the ex-Hyuuga's other arm and pulled her back. "No, me!"

As the back-and-forth continued, Tenten grinned and called up from the floor, "I wish I had someone fighting over me like that. Even if it is fighting amongst himself."

The blonds paused, regarding the slightly dizzy—though thoroughly amused—Hinata for a moment before turning their attention to Tenten. A moment later, Naruto turned back to Naruko. "Ok, fine. You can have Tenten."

The girl in question snickered, until Naruko asked, "In addition to or in lieu of?"

"Hey! I'm not a door prize!" Tenten grumbled loudly, drawing the pair's attention again.

Looking between each other and the bun-haired girl, the pair grinned apologetically. "Sorry Tenten-chan," Naruko said.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, we didn't mean it like that. Well, I didn't anyway."

"Neither did I."

"Yes you did."

"Did not!"

"Make it stop," a pitiful voice wined from across the room, accompanied by a sharp thump of something hitting wood.

Looking up, the group found Yukie had smashed her head back into the wall behind her. They watched as she pulled her head back and did it again. "That's got to hurt," Anko snickered.

"Please tell me there's something to drink on this tub," Yukie moaned in despair. Getting a collective head shake, she pulled her head back and repeated the process. "Fuck." After a moment, she regarded the pair of blonds. "I give up. What the hell do you want? Anything, just please, make it stop. I can't take any more."

"I think you broke her, Naruto-kun," Shizune murmured towards the blonds.

Anko smirked. "Looks like congratulations are in order," she said, turning her attention to Hinata—who seemed very happy to be sandwiched between a pair of her favorite blond. "You were right. We shouldn't have doubted him."

"Of course," Hinata smiled, glancing between the blonds and the actress.

Finally, the pair of blonds regarded each other for a moment before nodding. Naruko disappeared in a small cloud of smoke as Naruto and Hinata took their seats again, Naruto catching and somewhat confused by the quiet sound of disappointment Hinata let out when the other blond popped. Naruto observed the actress for several moments longer before finally asking the question that had been on his mind since he'd met her. Without her makeup, she looked haggard and pale, as though she'd been without sleep and food since they'd started their journey. Even from here, he could make out the subtle signs of someone who has been stressed just about to the breaking point. "Why are you the way you are?"

Yukie laughed quietly—a hollow, almost dead sound. Naruto had no idea of knowing that that question would be what drove her past that point. "My name is Kazahana Koyuki... and my father is the rightful ruler of Snow Country."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** I enjoyed writing the Naruko/Temari scenes, especially having the clones making the original question his sanity when they start acting funny. Naruto thinks far enough outside the box that I think, if he were to leave even a single clone out for too long, it would grow and change mentally in ways the original didn't so long as it experienced different things. It would essentially become an entirely new Naruto until the time it dispersed, then the original would be left trying to sort out which Naruto is Naruto.


	17. Setting the Stage

**The Missing Hokage**

**17: Setting the Stage**

* * *

"Report."

Standing to attention, Tenzou said, "Less than a dozen remain, though they are the most well-hidden members of Root."

Jiraiya nodded. "I figured as much. Looks like killing them off one by one on missions they couldn't handle worked. You were right, Danzou doesn't want any of them getting too hard to handle."

"If he did not suspect you were openly moving against him before, he and the others allied with him know now for sure. That is possibly why we are having so much difficulty locating the remaining Root operatives."

Looking out the window towards Tsunade's nearly finished face on the mountain beside his own only-partly completed face, Jiraiya hummed in thought. _'Haven't had much time to write lately,'_ he mused, watching as several workers went about the task of sculpting his face into the mountain. They had stopped working on Tsunade's only when he had been announced as Rokudaime. "What's the word on Tsunade's group?"

"There has been no word from Yuugao since they arranged passage to Snow Country," Tenzou answered.

Nodding, Jiraiya dismissed the ANBU captain. _'I think it's just about time,'_ he thought, waiting until he was certain he was alone before opening the window to his office. Cloaking himself in his favorite peeping jutsu, Jiraiya jumped from the window and roof-hopped across Konoha. On the outskirts of town, far past the point where one could roof hop and had to either take to the trees or the road, Jiraiya paused at a tree he recognized. It was a large sakura tree that he remembered marked the beginning of the path to Yondaime's home. Though the path was long since overgrown, Jiraiya followed it by memory. Remembering the instructions Sarutobi had left him, Jiraiya pulled out the key ring he'd found with the scroll containing the instructions.

Biting his thumb, Jiraiya smeared blood across the top of the second key—the one that had been labeled as the guest key. Walking forward, Jiraiya whistled lowly when the Namikaze residence appeared after he'd felt a brief tingle all over his body. _'A bit paranoid towards the end there, huh Minato?'_ the Sannin mused, grinning. He quickly made his way into the home, producing a pair of kage bunshin. Scattering, the trio of Toad Sannin soured the house for anything of value—practical or potentially sentimental for Naruto. Everything the found was placed atop a storage scroll unrolled atop the kitchen table. Several jutsu scrolls, a multitude of books Minato had used as research material, a storage scroll marked as being full of Hiraishin kunai, a photo album, and several other items were piled up and sealed into the scroll he'd brought with him. Looking the house over once more, Jiraiya decided that anything he had missed he or Naruto could potentially come back for later. Stuffing the scroll into a pocket, the Sannin left the house the same way he'd come in. Soon, he would talk to the council.

As the sun blazed red setting over Konoha, Yuuhi Kurenai made her way into a familiar animal clinic. Looking around, she spotted the decade-younger member of their little foursome. Smiling, the red-eyed jonin made her way into the clinic and leaned against the counter. "Busy tonight?" she asked, her fingers drumming against the counter in a quick beat. _'We need to talk.'_

Raising her eyebrows at hearing the opening signal for a coded conversation, Hana grinned and quickly interpreted the first part before responding. "Maybe," she answered, drawing out the 'a.' _'Why?'_

"I'll buy," Kurenai persuaded. _'It's important.'_

"Oh?" the Inuzuka asked. "You're buying me dinner too?" _'That serious?'_

The red-eyed kunoichi shrugged. "Sure, why not?" _'Yes.'_

"Just the two of us?" _'What about the others?'_

Kurenai rolled her eyes. "You'll have me all to yourself tonight," she sighed, putting up a put-upon front. _'The others aren't coming.'_

"Sure, it's a date then. When do you want to go?" Hana asked, curious almost beyond reason now. She had known Anko had left the village but simply assumed Yuugao was on a mission.

"How soon can you be ready?"

Hana shrugged. "I can have the place closed down in five minutes. If you'll give me an hour, I can wash the smell of dog off and get all prettied up," she teased.

Kurenai nodded. "That's fine," she agreed, turning to leave the clinic. Pausing at the door, she added, "The usual place tonight."

An hour and fifteen minutes later fond Hana sitting down to a table in a quiet eatery the foursome frequented whenever they were in town at the same time and wanted to blow off some steam. Quickly placing her order, she glanced at the porcelain bottle of sake on the table and the two cups with it—one of which Kurenai had to her mouth at the moment. Picking up the bottle, she frowned when she found it was half empty before pouring herself a cup. "So, what's up?" she asked, sipping at her drink.

A quick frown marred Kurenai's face before she placed her drink down. "How are things with your family?"

Hana rolled her eyes. _'So she doesn't want to get straight to business. What the hell?'_ she wondered. Aloud, she answered. "About the same, really. Mom's busy all the time and Kiba's just as loud as ever. He's been bugging the piss out of me to help him make a new jutsu ever since you stopped taking missions."

Kurenai shrugged. "You know Team Eight has a new kunoichi."

"That bad, huh?" Hana asked upon hearing Kurenai's tone.

"No. She's an excellent student, actually. Her attitude, however, has much room for improvement," she answered, letting out a frustrated huff of breath. "She apparently has your brother convinced it's Uzumaki-san's fault that Team Eight is short a member."

"Kiba's been sniffing after Hinata-chan for ages now. And you have to admit, Naruto is partially responsible," she added, feeling just a little defensive of her little brother—even if he couldn't see that the Hyuuga girl would never see him as anything more than a teammate, especially now.

"Hinata is old enough to make her own decisions," Kurenai retorted firmly before draining her cup and refilling it. A moment later, a waiter set out their food before leaving the table again. As with most of the servers, waiters, and waitresses in Konoha he had grown accustomed to halfway ignoring the ninja guests unless they specifically asked for something once they were seated. After all, it would not do to suddenly show up as a potential spy to one of them for simply trying to do the job the same way they would with civilian customers.

"Even if that decision means betraying her village?" Hana asked quietly.

Kurenai shook her head. "Konoha betrayed one of her own first." Seeing Hana's questioning look, Kurenai continued in a low tone, "I believe she made the right choice, given the circumstances."

"I... see," Hana said slowly, taking another sip of her drink before starting in on her food. After several moments of semi-uncomfortable silence, she asked, "So, how are things going with Asuma?"

"They aren't," Kurenai grumbled. "Haven't been for a while."

Hana winced in sympathy. "Sounds like someone needs to get laid."

Snorting, Kurenai downed her drink. "Understatement of the year," she mumbled, sampling her own meal.

By the time they finished the meal, the pair had also finished off another bottle of sake. Putting down money for the cheque, Kurenai stumbled slightly as she stood. Hana steadied the older woman and stood herself, leading Kurenai from the bar. "You wanna crash at my place?" she asked as they made their way out onto the street. Hana nearly squealed when she felt a hand slide up her shirt and grope her breast. A pair of soft, full lips descending on her own silenced her though.

"Mine," Kurenai answered a moment later, drawing a nervous giggle out of Hana at the look on her face.

"Right," the younger girl nodded, leading the pair across town to Kurenai's apartment. When Kurenai slid her key into the lock and opened the door, the pair made their way inside and locked the door behind them.

Toeing off her sandals, all traces of inebriation disappeared from Kurenai's features and her expression became all business. She made her way deeper into her home, barely making a sound. Returning to her sitting room, she found Hana sprawled out on her couch sending her an annoyed glare. "We're good."

"You bitch," Hana growled low in her throat. "I thought you were serious!" Seeing the inordinately pleased look on Kurenai's face, the younger girl rolled her eyes. "Fuck. Now I'm going to be horny all night," she ground out. "This had better be worth it."

"I think it is," Kurenai smiled, sitting down on the couch facing the younger woman. "Should I give you some time alone?"

Hana's eyes narrowed. "Tease," she spat out.

"Sorry, I'm not putting out for you. If you want that, you're going to have to ask Anko."

"I would if she were here," Hana whined petulantly. "At least she isn't a damn tease. You're the only kunoichi I know who isn't at least open to the idea," she grumbled.

"True, Anko is fairly straightforward when she wants something," Kurenai agreed. She didn't bother to address the younger girl's complaints over her sexuality—not that she had anything against sharing company with another woman, Hana just didn't need to know that Kurenai refused her simply to see the look on her face. "You know where she is?"

Hana nodded. "With Tsunade's group, right?" Seeing Kurenai nod, she asked, "Yuugao?"

"Jiraiya-sama has her watching over them, though I believe she's under orders not to make contact."

Studying the older woman for a moment, Hana asked, "When are you leaving?"

Kurenai shrugged. "Soon. There's room for one more, if you're interested."

"How soon is 'soon?'"

"Within the month," Kurenai answered. "There will be very little notice though."

"Shit," Hana grumbled. "You're not giving me much time to think about this, are you?"

"Sorry."

Sighing, Hana asked, "Who else is in on this?"

"Jiraiya-sama, myself, a civilian, and yourself if you agree," Kurenai answered. "The fewer people we take the better, we think. We may be able to collect Yuugao when we get where we're heading."

"That would be the whole set," Hana smiled. "Plus two Sannin and three apprentices to Sannin. Well, four counting Anko. That'd make for a pretty interesting little group." After a moment, she asked, "Why?"

Kurenai gave the matter a moment of thought before answering. "Konoha is dying, I think."

"That doesn't mean we should just abandon our friends and family! If we pull together and start getting things done around here, the village can be back in shape in no time. What you're talking about is like the old days, back before ninja settled into villages. We'd be exposed, with no where to run to when the shit hits the fan. And it will, eventually."

"The thing about the Sannin is that they rarely agree on anything. That two of them agree that something stinks in Konoha, enough to leave this place for good, should tell you something. Keep in mind that both of those Sannin also happen to carry the title 'Hokage.'" Seeing the younger girl wasn't convinced, she said, "Haven't you ever wondered how it was that despite the wishes of two of the men who bore that title, over half the village defied their wishes and got away with it? Perhaps they never openly defied them, but they did everything in their power to go against their spirit."

"Yeah, but—"

"'Yeah, but' nothing. Defiance is defiance. Let me ask you this: who leads this village?"

Hana shrugged. "The Hokage."

"And who does he answer to?"

"The Fire Lord," Hana answered, feeling once again as she so often did around Kurenai—like a child still in the academy being scolded by her sensei for not picking up on an easy lesson. She was a grown woman, damnit, not some rookie genin!

Kurenai nodded. "Then how is it a council composed of over half civilians and less than a quarter active duty ninja can either ignore their leader's orders and have even presumed to order that leader around as though _they_ were the ones really in power? And all of this because of _one_ boy."

Hana blinked. "Is that what really happened?"

Kurenai nodded. "The council threatened to have a ninja under the command of the Hokage executed if Tsunade did not agree to exile him. Despite the fact that no one save for the Fire Lord can even _command_ one of the Hokage's ninja, let alone attempt to have one executed without the Hokage's approval. They attempted to do an end-run around Tsunade, using the excuse that they could get permission after they already had the ninja in question in custody unless Tsunade agreed."

"What... the fuck?" Hana asked, confusion written on her face. Seeing Kurenai nod, she sighed. "It's no wonder she left. Everyone with two neurons to rub together knows how much she loves that kid and forcing her to choose between love for him and duty to the village... For someone who has spent the majority of her adult life outside of Konoha anyway, I suppose it wasn't that hard a choice to make."

"When can I have your decision?"

Sighing, Hana shrugged. "Can I at least sleep on it?"

Nodding, Kurenai made her way towards her bedroom. "I think it's time for bed anyway. I have to be up early in the morning if I plan to meet my team for training."

Following the older kunoichi, Hana grinned. "You could always just do what Kakashi does," she suggested, beginning to undress as well. Hana knew she was skilled as a kunoichi, but she also knew Kurenai was better. The other woman had nearly a decade of experience more than her. Trying to get away would be pretty damn futile. Besides, she trusted Kurenai not to kill her in her sleep or something equally final. Put one hell of a genjutsu on her until she and the others leaving with Jiraiya could flee, certainly. Hurt her? Probably not. Kurenai honestly wanted her along when they decided it was time to go, so she owed it to the older kunoichi to at least consider the offer. The problem was, it was almost the same decision Tsunade had been made to face: choose between the people she loved—either her closest friends or her family—and to choose what felt _right_ over loyalty to Village and Lord.

"Not a chance," Kurenai denied, sliding into her futon as Hana hit the lights and followed.

It was late into the night when Hana shifted restlessly in the older kunoichi's grip before sighing quietly. "I'm in," she agreed. For better or worse, she would follow her heart on this decision. The things Kurenai said were true—something in Konoha stunk and it seemed the only people in power willing to _do_ something about it were getting out while the getting was good. Now to find some way to tell her mother without getting her ass handed to her for the perceived abandonment. Maybe she could convince Kurenai to help. Hell, with enough effort maybe her mother could be made to see things as they saw them and would lead the Inuzuka clan from Konoha. ...No, her mother and the rest of the clan would be some of the last to leave, if at all. It would only occur when there was no one left in Konoha worth them being loyal to, if at all. The Hyuuga were more likely to execute a mass-exodus than the Inuzuka.

Hana was rewarded with a brief peck at the nape of her neck. Yawning, Kurenai pulled the younger girl closer. "Good, now stop fidgeting so I can sleep."

"I _told_ you it would be all night," Hana growled out in frustration when she heard and felt the older kunoichi chuckle behind her.

* * *

Around the same time Jiraiya was visiting the Namikaze residence, Temari was growing vaguely bored. Yawning, she regarded the blonde across the room from her. Naruko had her nose buried in what looked to be some sort of advanced medical text, though Temari didn't know enough about the subject to properly judge exactly how advanced it was. Looking up from her book, Naruko pointed out, "You stopped."

Temari shrugged. "I'm getting kind of bored with it," she admitted, having been trying to master the water manipulation exercise Naruko had shown her earlier in the day. She hadn't seen much progress with the jutsu so was just about to the point of giving up for the day. "I don't see how you did the one I showed you so easily," the complained.

Naruko shrugged. "It was easy. All I really had to figure out was how to force the earth to move. After that, identifying and separating out basic elements builds on something I've already been working on with medical jutsu. I'm sure it works differently with sand though."

"Yeah, it's easier," Temari admitted. "Medical jutsu?"

The other blonde nodded. "Tsunade-baachan is teaching us all at least the basic stuff."

"Why?"

"She says it's because there aren't enough medics in the world to begin with, so anyone willing to learn should at least be given a chance," Naruko shrugged.

Growing disinterested with the topic—mostly because it was work-related and Temari was currently taking a day off—the older kunoichi asked, "Is there anything to do in this town?"

"'Do?'" Naruko parroted.

Seeing the confused look on the other girl's face, Temari blinked. "You know. Movies, somewhere to sight see, hell I'm almost desperate enough to try a bar," the girl mused.

Naruko shrugged. "I think there's a theater but I've never been there. Not many sights here either, unless you want to see the hot springs—and again, they're not that great. I don't do bars." After a moment, the blonde added, "There are a couple of gambling parlors here, if that's your thing."

After a moment of thought, Temari groaned. "Oh man, you're actually serious. You've perfectly happy to sit here and study or something, aren't you?" Seeing Naruko nod, she palmed her face in frustration. "You lived a very sheltered life as a child, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did," Naruko snapped.

Hearing the tone in the other girl's voice, Temari quickly apologized. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that," she murmured. Having Gaara as a brother had pretty much driven off any potential friends in Suna, even to this day. That this girl seemed to know about her little brother and didn't care was a godsend. Despite initially getting off on the wrong foot—what with suspecting her to be another Naruto-clone trying to pull a prank on her—Temari found herself warming up to the younger girl. She simply didn't have enough experience with dealing with people her own age to know when it was best to think before speaking. Driving off the first girl to have shown interest in her since well, pretty much ever through an act of stupidity on her part would be worse than if her brother had simply scared the other girl off. That, she was used to at least.

Smiling, Naruko nodded. "Ok." After a moment, she closed her book and stood, dropping it on the couch behind her. "Come on, let's go see if we can find something to do."

"Thanks," Temari breathed in relief, standing and following the younger blonde from the home and into town. The movie theater was actually fairly easy to find and after wasting nearly four hours watching a movie—oddly enough, one of Yukie's movies—the pair made their way out onto the darkening streets and decided to eat out that night. "Still kind of bored," Temari mused as they were finishing off dessert.

"Are you saying I'm not interesting enough for you?" Naruko teased.

Temari smirked. "No, you've been a wonderful date. Maybe later I'll ask you to come back to my place for a cup of coffee or something and we can see what happens from there."

"I'm game if you are," Naruko answered, the nearly omni-present foxy grin crossing her face and nearly forcing her eyes closed to accommodate it.

Her bluff called, Temari blinked. "Maybe later," she conceded quietly. Louder, she continued, "How about one of those gambling parlors you told me about?"

Naruko immediately paled. "That's a bad idea," she denied quietly.

"Oh come on, it can't be that bad," Temari protested, standing and taking the other blonde by the hand before leading her towards where she could see a fairly nice looking one down the street—well, it looked nice from the outside anyway.

"Well, just don't say I didn't warn you," Naruko sighed, resigning herself to yet another night of gambling.

Temari rolled her eyes. "Your luck can't be any worse than mine," she reasoned as they neared the building. She side-stepped a man in a blue and purple loud shirt carrying a fairly large sized bowl of his winnings. Several coins skittered off the top of the stack, falling towards their feet. "Hey mister, you dropped some!" Temari called after the man.

The guy in the loud shirt waved the blonde girl off. "Keep it, kid," he said, continuing along his way.

Temari smirked, pocketing the coins. "See, our luck's looking good already."

Naruko sighed, nodding in agreement. _'Those were for me,'_ she mused, already having a feeling just how this night would turn out. Well, with any luck, they wouldn't get kicked out before Temari had had her fill of gambling for the night. As they entered the casino/gambling parlor, Naruko asked, "So where do you want to start?"

The taller blonde shrugged. "Don't know. I've never been to one of these places before. Any suggestions?"

_'Let's get this over with,'_ Naruko sighed in resignation. "Slot machines."

"Makes sense," Temari allowed, pulling the coins from her pocket. Counting them up, she offered Naruko half. She was surprised when the other girl took one off the top and ignored the rest. "Don't you need more?"

"Nope."

Finally catching onto the defeated tone, she asked, "What's the matter? You haven't even started yet and you act like you've lost."

The foxy smirk returned for just a moment. "You'll find out soon enough."

Shrugging, Temari went to the first empty machine she could find and popped a coin in. Pulling the lever, she watched it spin down for several seconds before landing on mixed numbers. "Crap," the girl breathed, repeating the process—complete with a 'crap' after every subsequent loss. "Looks like my luck didn't go any further than the door. Oh well," she shrugged. "Your turn, foxy."

Flipping the coin into the air, Naruko caught it and slid it home into the machine before pulling the handle down. "Here we go again."

In a room above the main floor, several men and a few women dressed in suits sat at a circular table overlooking the gambling floor through a large bank of one-way mirrors. Stationed every few feet along the glass were several other people tasked with watching the floor for signs of cheaters. Looking through a pair of binoculars towards the entrance, one of the men on watch hummed, drawing the attention of those at the table. "Nothing," the man said, shaking his head. "Just thought I recognized someone, but it was just some girl."

"Are you sure?" asked one of the men at the table.

The observer shrugged. "Pretty sure. For a minute though, I could have sworn it was _him._ Same eyes, same hair, even the same facial markings."

"A relative, perhaps," a woman at the table allowed. "Keep an eye on her."

"Back to the business at hand," the suited man at what passed for the head of the table said, drawing the attention back to their purpose for being there. A plaque in front of his seat had only the word 'Alpha' written on it. "Have there been any signs of activity from the Names?"

The woman who had spoken earlier, labeled as 'Epsilon,' answered first. "Rumor has it, the Legendary Sucker was seen boarding a ship around a week ago."

"The Fox is downstairs, dominating the card tables again," one of the men charged with heading up this particular gambling den's security told the others. A nameplate before him labeled him as 'Gamma.'

"Last I heard, Poker Alice was retiring after this year's game," a man designated as 'Mu' announced.

"And _him_?" Alpha asked, turning back towards Gamma and Epsilon.

Gamma shrugged. "He's supposed to be with the Legendary Sucker. He is her apprentice, after all."

"Yes, however, word around town is that he spends his days working in one of the ninja stores," Epsilon put in.

"Could be both places at once, what with that double technique he was spamming the last times he was here. Wasn't that with that pretty little brunette?" Gamma said, directing the question towards the newcomer to the table beside him and the man who he was currently training to one day replace him.

'Delta,' as the newbie was labeled, nodded. "Oh yeah, right. Isn't that Tsunade's apprentice?"

"One of them," Alpha allowed, deciding to let the newbie off the hook for not referring to the Sannin by the name they'd given her. "On the subject of the Legendary Sucker's apprentice—are there any suggestions this week?" It had become routine since the blond had first shown up for the group to attempt to come up with a name for him when they met.

Nearly everyone at the table either shrugged or shook their head. Delta, however, grinned as though he'd just won the lottery himself. "I've been saving this one all week!" Seeing the looks from the others urging him to get on with it, he continued. "Ok, how about this: The Golden Fleece?" Receiving blank looks all around, he elaborated. "You know... because he'll 'fleece' you?"

At the collective groan from everyone in the room who had heard, Alpha shot an annoyed glare towards Gamma around a face-palm. "Gamma, if you can not keep your partner from making asinine suggestions he will be banned from these gatherings."

"You heard the man," Gamma directed towards Delta.

"Sorry, boss," the junior agent apologized. "I couldn't help it."

Before any further berating could occur, the agent assigned to watch the girl on the floor drew their attention. "Ah, crap."

"What is it?" Mu asked, seeing the worried look on the agent's face.

"She won."

"I fail to see how that is remarkable," Epsilon pointed out.

The agent rolled his eyes behind the binoculars. "On the first try."

"Ah, crap," Gamma echoed.

Back on the floor, Temari blinked as the younger blonde grabbed a bucket for holding her winnings the moment she'd pulled the lever and held it under the slot that would dump out the coins. When the machine began wailing and spitting out coins, Temari narrowed her eyes. "Ok, how'd you do it?"

"Do what?"

"You knew you'd win," Temari clarified. "So, how did you cheat?"

Naruko smirked. "I don't have to cheat."

Temari snorted. "Fine, don't tell me. But you're going to have to prove it," she said, pointing towards a machine that had just been vacated.

Sighing, Naruko pulled a coin from the top of her winnings and slid it into the new machine, repeating the process—up to and including holding the bucket under the return slot again. When the machine lit up and spilled its contents into her plastic bucket, the blonde asked Temari, "Satisfied?"

Narrowing her eyes, Temari pulled the younger blonde to another machine. "Do it again," she said. This time, she waved her hands around the smaller blonde while she repeated the process, a faint glow of chakra covering her hands. "No chakra strings," she murmured when this machine went off.

"Told you I'm not cheating," Naruko sighed. "Come on, let's go change this out for cash."

Watching the younger girl change out her winnings as though she'd done it countless times, Temari frowned. "Let's try another game," she said once Naruko came away from the exchange table with a small stack of cash. When the fox faced girl shrugged, Temari dragged her off towards what looked like an overly complicated dice game. "How about this one?"

Naruko shrugged. "You shouldn't waste money like that," she said as Temari pulled a few bills out of her own wallet and placed her bet before accepting the dice.

"You sound pretty sure I'm going to lose," she noted.

Naruko smirked. "Well, I'd be willing to bet on it."

"The terms?" Temari asked, growing interested. There was no possible way the smaller girl could always win at every game, even if she did seem to have godly luck on the slots.

"To make it fair, if you win even a quarter as many times as I do, you win the bet." Seeing Temari's eyes narrow, Naruko shrugged. "Half?"

"How about we just go with whoever wins the most?" she asked, though she quickly amended that with, "Not counting the previous wins."

"Your funeral," Naruko shrugged. "Tell you what, if I lose even once you win the whole thing."

Temari snorted. "Really, huh?"

Nodding, Naruko said, "Well, I would say you won if you win once, but I'm not entirely sure if it would work."

"Overconfident much?" Temari asked, grinning. When the younger girl shrugged, Temari asked, "So, what are the stakes?"

"Huh?"

"What do we get if we win?" Temari clarified.

Naruko shrugged. "What do you want?"

"I can think of a few things," Temari murmured. After a moment, she grinned as a thought from the first day she'd met the other blonde resurfaced. "If I win, you have to do everything I say tomorrow."

"That's fine," Naruko agreed.

After waiting for a moment for the younger girl to add her own demand, Temari grew impatient. "Well?" Seeing the girl's questioning look, she asked, "What do you want if you win?"

"I don't want anything," Naruko smiled.

Huffing out a breath in annoyance, Temari turned back to the table and threw her dice. "You're no fun," she muttered petulantly. Seeing the fan-girl narrow her eyes in annoyance when she lost, Naruko took the dice and placed her own bet with the entire stack of cash. "Are you sure you want to just..." Temari started to warn the other girl, but it was already too late as the dice had left her hand. A moment later, the stack of cash had grown to four times its original size.

Peeling off the amount that Temari had lost, Naruko handed it to her and smiled. "Next?"

Nearly two hours later, Temari was just about ready to bash her head against the nearest flat surface in frustration. She hadn't won a single game the entire night. She hadn't lost any of her money trying, but the blonde with her had continued to amass the stuff. "I give up," she announced. "You win."

Naruko smiled, turning away from the latest game they'd tried and starting for the door. Before she got very far, a card table in the corner of the room caught her eye. There, sitting amongst a group of people who looked to be losing rather badly, was a familiar card-shark wearing a shirt with a large fox printed on it, the word BAD written above it in bold lettering. "One more game?" she asked sweetly.

Temari sighed. "Fine," she agreed, seeing the direction of the other girl's gaze. Well, at least she would be able to watch someone else get beaten for a while.

Nodding, Naruko thought for a moment before the familiar foxy grin split her face. "I'll be right back," she said, handing Temari her stack of winnings and making her way quickly from the building. Just over three minutes later, Naruko returned—a black-framed pair of reflective sunglasses hung from her tee-shirt between her breasts. "Let's go."

Naruko seated herself as one of the seats at the table emptied. Placing her winnings on the table, she grinned in the general direction of the card-shark. "See something you like?" she asked, seeing him eye the sunglasses hung from her shirt. Getting an annoyed look from the other man, she didn't even bother looking at her cards as they were dealt to her. Several games and an increasingly pale-looking card-shark later, Naruko yawned as she pushed just enough of her mountain of cash forward to force everyone at the table to go all in. She ignored the minor players who'd attempted to match her bet. Across from her, the card-shark put his cards face-up on the table. His hand would be a hard one to beat. "Oh, sorry. Tough luck," Naruko shook her head. Again, she hadn't even bothered looking at her cards before she flipped them over—once again beating everyone at the table.

Standing, the card-shark shook his head. "Those're my 'shades, aren't they?" he asked, pointing towards the pair of glasses hanging from Naruko's shirt.

"Possibly," the girl grinned. As the former card-shark left the table, Naruko turned towards Temari. "Ok, we're done."

"What did he mean by that? You've beaten him before?" Temari asked.

Naruko shrugged. "Naruto won them from him the first night Tsunade and Anko dragged him out gambling. He cheated Tsunade and Anko out of all their money."

"You did that just to piss him off, didn't you?" Temari asked, getting a nod.

Naruko turned towards the dealer. "You mind having this deposited into Uzumaki Naruto's account?" she asked. Getting the response she was looking for—after all, every dealer and head of every table and game in the place knew Naruto's name by now—she grinned and took Temari by the arm. "And off we go."

Temari sighed, rolling her eyes. "I was really looking forward to getting that back rub too, damnit," she whined quietly.

"Why didn't you just ask?" Naruko asked, raising an eyebrow. "I wouldn't have said no." She grinned when Temari groaned in frustration.

As they neared the door, a man in a suit approached them. "Excuse me, miss?" he asked. Seeing he had their attention, he asked, "Are you any relation to Uzumaki Naruto?"

Naruko's grin turned mischievous. "Something like that."

Temari rolled her eyes. "They're twins," she cut in, hoping to at least spoil that much for the other girl. She was mildly annoyed when Naruko simply grinned wider.

"Thank you," the man bowed, heading towards a door marked 'Employees Only.'

"What was that all about?" Temari asked the smaller blonde as she was led outside and back towards Team Hokage's home.

"I'm sure I have no idea," Naruko answered innocently.

Back in the mirrored room, Gamma returned from speaking with the fox faced girl. "She's his sister."

"So," Alpha mused. "That's the second time the Fox has lost to one of them."

"Are you sure they aren't somehow cheating?" Epsilon asked.

Gamma shook his head. "Nah, if I've been over the footage once, I've been over it a hundred times. He doesn't cheat. And if she's anything like him, neither does she. They're just golden."

Mu hummed in thought for a moment, regarding the others. "The Golden Pair?" he suggested.

Nodding at the suggestion, Alpha said, "Invite them to this year's game." He turned towards Mu before adding, "Make sure Alice is there."

"How will we be seating them?" Epsilon asked.

"Attempting to pit one against the other would possibly provide for some interesting results, however, I suggest we give them only one hand. We could see if The Pair can work together," Gamma suggested.

"Do it," Alpha nodded. "And make sure that they know they are exempt from this year's buy-in."

"Ooh," Gamma winced. "The Fox isn't going to like that. Especially since he's already lost to them twice."

"He'll get over it," Mu grinned. "So, where are we having this year's game?"

"Depending on how the situation turns out, I may have an idea..." Alpha murmured. Sending The Pair somewhere would mean Team Hokage would be right on their heels, after all.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto yawned as he slowly became aware of his surroundings. His attempts to stretch were foiled by the feeling of a warm body to either side of him. His left eye peeked open just enough to find that Hinata was in the same place she had been in the night before when she finally fell asleep—his arm on that side hugged tightly against her chest. He smiled at the absolutely adorable look of contentment on her sleeping face. His eye closed as he debated going back to sleep. An odd motion against his right thigh stalled that thought. _'Shizu-neechan?'_ the blond wondered, inhaling through his nose and at once discarding that notion. _'Anko this time,'_ he concluded. His eyes shot open as a hot mouth descended on his right eat, teeth biting down on it and chewing gently. "Ack!" the blond choked out, coming fully awake. He registered that the odd rubbing motion against his thigh was coming from where Anko had one of her legs slung over and between his own and was currently sliding her crotch up and down his leg.

"Anko!" the boy choked out, going completely red. "Get off!" The older woman humming and completely ignoring him had not been the reaction he was going for. He attempted to free his right arm, only to find she had a death grip on it, holding it firmly between her breasts. Turning his head sharply and hoping he hadn't torn his ear on her teeth, he smashed his forehead into her chin. "Wake up!"

Anko stopped dry humping the boy's leg, giving a startled jerk backwards before opening her eyes in a glare. "Oh, you had better have a _damn_ good reason for waking me up brat. You just interrupted the best dream I've had in months."

"How's trying to molest me in your sleep for a reason, you pervert?!" the boy ground out, trying to be quiet enough not to wake the others.

Blinking, Anko looked down and took in their current sleeping arrangements. "Well, what do you know? You're right for once," she shrugged, not even attempting to extricate herself from the three-way tangle of limbs between herself, Hinata, and the blond between them.

"Get. Off," Naruto growled at the woman, glaring.

Anko smirked. "Well, I would have eventually if you'd left me alone," she snickered.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "I'm pretty sure Hinata-chan wouldn't want you doing that," he mumbled, most of his initial panic reaction abating.

"Nah, I don't think she minds," Anko denied.

The pair were surprised a moment later when Hinata yawned and leaned up to peck the blond on the cheek. "If you're going to share Naruto-kun, please be quiet about it," she murmured sleepily.

"Hina.. wha?" the blond choked out, turning his head to regard the smaller girl. He found her head resting against his shoulder, mouth open in a quiet snore. A small trail of drool leaked from the corner of her mouth.

A snicker from his other side drew his attention back to Anko. "Told you so," the woman grinned.

"She was just talking in her sleep," the boy denied. "That doesn't count."

"If you say so," Anko shrugged against his arm, causing her breasts to rub against the limb. "Now, if you don't mind, I've got a dream I'd like to get back to," she said, sending the blond a perverted leer as she closed her eyes and scooted closer.

Naruto's protests and Anko's teasing—at least he _thought_ she was teasing—were brought to a halt when the ship shuddered to a dead stop. "What the hell?" the blond asked, echoed by Anko.

"Naruto-kun," Hinata murmured sleepily, then jerked awake and looked around. "What happened?" she asked, seeing most of the other kunoichi had been awakened by their sudden stop.

"Yukie-sama!" Sandayuu called from outside the room. "We will begin filming shortly."

"Shit," a muffled voice cursed from somewhere near Tsunade. "What are those idiots up to?"

Feeling the chill in the air of the room, the group decided to dress in the heavier clothes Naruto had supplied before they had set out. Making their way out from the ship with Yukie amongst them, they found out what Sandayuu and the film crew were up to. Apparently someone had spotted a large ice berg as they'd neared Snow Country and the captain had agreed to bump the ship's armored prow into it to allow the film crew to disembark and begin setting up to shoot. "Whose brilliant idea was this?" Tsunade wondered aloud.

"Probably the director," Tenten mused from beside Naruto and Hinata.

"Goddamn civilians," Anko grumbled, annoyed at having her fun earlier cut short.

Holding his hands up over a small heater settled on the ground, Naruto yawned widely—mimicked by Yukie on the other side of Hinata from him. "At least the clothes are warm," the boy grumbled, observing the film crew as they finished setting up their cameras.

"We're ready to begin filming!" one of the crew yelled a moment later, causing Yukie to frown as she broke away from the heater and took her place in the scene.

"Scene 36, cut 22. Action!"

"Ha ha ha ha!" the older man playing the villain laughed from atop a small hill formed by the ice. "So, you have come all the way up here... Fuun-hime!"

Behind two other members of the cast, Yukie raised her sword defensively. "Mao!"

"Hime-sama! Please, stay back!"

"We will deal with him!" the face-painted actor growled out, grasping the hilt of his still-sheathed saber.

"Whatever your numbers, you are no match for me," 'Mao' gloated, grasping his staff in one hand and slashing his other down towards the group of three actors. Behind him, a small mountain of ice exploded into flames and smaller chunks of ice. "What is the meaning of this?" the old man asked, turning back to regard the explosion in confusion.

"What are you doing?" the director yelled, seeing Tsunade, Anko, and Shizune had moved into place between the trio of actors and the explosion.

Tossing off a white snow-camouflage sheet, a purple-haired older shinobi stood from near the site of the explosion. "Welcome to Snow Country," he smirked, crossing his arms. The group from Fire Country got their first good look at the Snow-nin as, atop a spire of ice to the other side of 'Mao' from the first Snow-nin, a kunoichi with hair a few shares darker pink than Haruno Sakura's spoke up. "I welcome you, Koyuki-hime. Did you bring the Hexagonal Crystal?"

Behind and off to the right of the group of ex-Konoha ninja, a third form burst up from the snow, laughing. "What the hell are they wearing?" Naruto wondered aloud, trying to decide how to handle this.

"Naruto, Hinata, Tenten!" Tsunade snapped, drawing the trio's attention. "Protect Koyuki." After a moment of thought, she regarded Haku, who had drawn several kunai and senbon he'd been issued by the group. "You stay with the film crew."

Nodding, the injured boy quickly took up a defensive position between the film crew and the closest threat—the seemingly-overweight third member of the opposing group of shinobi. He knew that he had just been shunted off to the side and away from where the main battles were likely to take place, but he could not fault Tsunade's reasoning. After all, with his chakra pathways still healing he was in no shape to fight with anything more than taijutsu and not for very long at that. "Everyone, return to the ship," Haku calmly ordered towards the crew.

"Fubuki, Mizore, get Koyuki-hime," the apparent leader ordered the kunoichi and the largest of the trio, jumping off his perch towards the group of kunoichi.

"Yeah, yeah," the kunoichi grumbled, jumping down from her own perch.

"Anko, stay here. Shizune, with me," Tsunade ordered quickly, dashing forward to intercept the leader—followed closely by Shizune.

"Tsunade-sama, you honor me," the leader smirked down towards the Sannin. "This will be nothing like the last time I fought a ninja from your village."

Idly flicking her new hitai-ate, Tsunade smirked back. "You know who I am," she pointed out. "Pretty cocky of you, bringing only three men."

"Oh?" the leader hummed, seeing the hitai-ate up close. "So the rumors are true. Ah, but where are my manners? My name is Rouga Nadare." Drawing a kunai, his smirk widened as he cut a shallow path into his palm and brought the bloody hand forward in a strike towards Tsunade's face. Movement from the side drew his attention to the woman's apprentice, who had jumped to the side and launched several senbon from the launcher on her arm. A pair of them pinged off the armor of his attacking arm, distracting him momentarily.

Ignoring the bloody appendage, Tsunade brought a foot up and slammed it into the other ninja's chest, sending him crashing back into the ice wall and sending cracks radiating outwards from it. "Cocky bastard, I'm not that lazy Copy-nin," the Sannin rolled her eyes, having read the related mission reports regarding Kakashi's previous mission to Snow Country before they'd left. She was surprised when he actually managed to stand and attempted to either flee or draw them away from the rest of the group, up the side of the ice wall. "What the hell? That should have caved his chest in!" Glaring after the man, she called, "Shizune!"

"Hai!" Shizune acknowledged, rushing up the ice wall towards her mentor and extending her hand, which was quickly grabbed by the Sannin. She held on tightly as Tsunade jerked her hand upwards, sending Shizune flying past Nadare and into the air over the ice cliff/mountain. Sealing quickly, the Sannin's apprentice sent a cloud of poison gas trailing in her wake from her mouth.

"Shit!" Nadare breathed, switching himself out of the vapor trail with a block of ice even as the Sannin below jumped, cracking the ice below her with the downward force from her legs and sending herself hurling after him even as Shizune flung kunai towards him as she neared the apex of her flight. As Nadare pulled out his own kunai to block the ones thrown by Shizune, Tsunade quickly caught up to him, rotating her body and sending a super-powered kick slamming into his back. Nadare bounced across the top of the ice cliff he'd landed on before rolling to a stop.

Below the fighting Sannin, Naruto, Hinata, and Tenten had spread into a delta-formation around Yukie and the other two actors. "This is just like the movies," the boy grinned. "Hey _Fuun-hime_, don't worry. We'll protect you!" Above and to their right, Mizore had pulled a blue and red folding board of some sort from off of his back. Jumping on it, he suddenly shot forward towards the group. "Incoming!" Naruto yelled, shooting forward in a quick shunshin and slamming his foot into the much larger ninja's chest before bouncing off.

"Damn brat!" Mizore cursed, wobbling on his board and picking up speed as he circled around in an attempt to attack the blond annoyance.

"Hinata, back him up!" Anko called, splitting her attention between Naruto and the kunoichi of the attacking group.

As Naruto ducked to the side of Mizore attempting to run him down, Hinata drew a trio of kunai and attempted to repeat her success with Tsunade's strength-enhancing jutsu. The air cracked loudly as the weapons broke the sound barrier leaving the girl's hand, so it was understandable that she was surprised when they shattered upon hitting Mizori's upraised armored forearm. Narrowing her eyes, she activated her Byakugan and caught a faint echo of chakra radiating from the arm in question. Drawing another kunai, she flung it towards the moving target, watching as a sphere of chakra sprang into life around Mizore to deflect the weapon. "Naruto-kun! His armor produces a chakra shield!" she yelled in warning towards the blond.

"WHAT?!" the boy yelled, glaring at Mizore. "Those bastards stole my jutsu!"

"Hyouton: Tsubame Fubuki!" the attacking kunoichi—Fubuki—yelled, sending a stream of small ice swallows flying towards Anko and Tenten.

Rolling her eyes, Anko dodged to the side and let the stream of swallows fly past her as Tenten rolled away from them to keep from getting cut off from Yukie and the others. Sealing quickly, Anko brought her fingers to her mouth as she turned back towards the attack, which had changed course and swung around for another attack. "Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu!" Anko blew out a stream of fire from the low-ranked jutsu, melting the birds down into water. Sure, there were lots of other techniques that could be used in this environment that would have done the trick, but melting them with a fire jutsu would ensure the jutsu's creator couldn't simply reanimate them and would have to waste chakra on forming more if she wanted to attack like that again. And using a lower-ranked jutsu instead of something flashier would make sure Anko had chakra left over for later. Some dumb kid like the Uchiha would have spammed the same jutsu for the same purpose, but run through much of his reserves in doing so.

"Hurry up and get back to the ship!" Tenten yelled back towards Yukie and her fellow actors, pulling out a pair of kunai and loosing her weapon-summoning scrolls in case she needed them. Hopefully, Anko would keep the other kunoichi too busy to do anything. She turned her eyes towards Hinata and Naruto for a moment, worry creeping into her features. She'd heard Hinata's warning about the chakra shield, so it stood to reason that since they were all equipped with the same kind of armor they could all use a similar shield.

"Hyouro no jutsu!" Fubuki called, touching her hand to the ground and sending ice spires shooting up from the ground in a trail leading towards Anko as Anko sent another stream of fire towards the incoming ice. It wasn't powerful enough to stop the jutsu, but it served to distract the other kunoichi and force her to erect a shield of ice.

Behind Tenten, Yukie froze as she watched the battle. Visions of fire and water and darkness danced in her mind's eye as she collapsed to her knees, Sandayuu rushing to her side. Distracted by the princess, Naruto turned his head back towards the oncoming form of Mizore and dodged to the side as the larger shinobi brought his armored hand crashing down into the snow where the blond had just been. He chased after the dodging blond, throwing kicks and punches in an attempt to lure the boy into a false sense of security. A moment later, the sound of air being sucked into something reached the blond's ears as Mizore brought his armored hand around and slammed it into Naruto's stomach in an air-driven punch, sending the blond flying and crashing into a wall of ice.

"Naruto!" Hinata yelled in worry, stepping inside Mizore's guard and attempting to get Jyuuken strikes past the chakra shield. She was relieved when the Naruto buried in the ice poofed into smoke, revealing that it was just a kage bunshin. She ducked out of the way of a swipe from Mizore, and examined where she'd struck him. None of the tenketsu were closed, which meant Jyuuken was out.

Above the other fights, Tsunade sealed quickly and sent a dragon of water rushing at Nadare. From the side, Shizune confirmed her suspicions with a nod. "It's some kind of chakra armor!" the first apprentice called out.

"Correct," Nadare grinned as the jutsu abated. Tsunade was annoyed to find that he wasn't even wet. "This armor increases my chakra and strengthens my techniques. Three of us are more than enough to handle even you, Tsunade-hime." Smirking, he continued. "It creates a wall of chakra around the body. It can even nullify your chakra and reflect it back at you. It doesn't matter what kind of ninjutsu or genjutsu you use, it won't work. Tsunade-hime of the Densetsu no Sannin, even your legendary strength is no match for this armor."

The Sannin grinned. "Then I guess I'm just not using enough of it."

Narrowing his eyes, Nadare began sealing. "Hyouton: Haryuu Muuko!"

Seeing the jutsu approached, Tsunade and Shizune each performed a quick kawarimi as the technique slammed into the place where they had once been. "Any ideas?" the Sannin asked her apprentice.

Thinking quickly, Shizune said, "He evaded my poison mist, so unless I'm mistaken that armor can't filter out airborne biological or chemical agents. He's too fast to catch in a stream of it though, so we would have to blanket the area."

Below, Mizore rushed past Hinata and Naruto towards Yukie. Raising his arm, he shot several lines of _something_ at the actress/princess and prepared to yank her towards him when a kunai thrown by Tenten severed the lines. "Out of the way, little girl!" A blur of orange and black slammed Mizore off his board and sent him tumbling into the snow. Naruto rolled into a crouch in front of Tenten as Hinata slid into place behind the Snow-nin. Rolling quickly to his feet, the deceptively fast Mizore charged the little blond, drawing back his armored hand in an attempt to smash the boy's head in. "Little brat!" So it was quite to his surprise that his chakra armor enhanced punch was intercepted and stopped dead by the blond's gloved hand. A punch from his other arm was similarly intercepted and held. _'What is this chakra?'_ he thought, feeling hot, foul energy begin to pour off the blond boy along with a building killing intent. When the boy looked up, he found himself staring into a pair of feral, red slitted eyes. He blinked when he caught movement from behind him and the blond boy grinned, bringing a foot up into his chest and sending him hurling backwards.

Jumping to the side, Anko jumped again as the pillars of ice from Fubuki's jutsu followed her. Seeing them closing in on her position, she jumped into the air. A moment later, the pillars quickly shot up and captured her foot, halting her escape. The rest of Anko's body was encased in the ice a moment later. Grinning down at the smirking Snow kunoichi, Anko disappeared in a cloud of smoke. "What?!" Fubuki yelled, looking around for the special-jonin.

Movement from behind her drew Fubuki's attention—too late—to where Anko had been sealing for her own jutsu. A trio of snakes slid out from the special-jonin's sleeves, wrapping around the other kunoichi and slamming her against her own ice pillars. "Gotcha," Anko grinned. She narrowed her eyes when the snakes around the other kunoichi dispersed into smoke. The sound of metal sliding on metal preceded a short pair of protrusions extending from the armor on Fubuki's back. Anko watched on as the pink-haired kunoichi took to the air on a pair of glowing chakra-driven wings. "Oh, I want me some of those," she murmured.

Turning her attention to Yukie, Tenten nearly growled. "What are you waiting for!? Hurry up and return to the ship!"

Yukie ignored everything around her as the memories she'd tried to hide from for the past ten years returned in full force. Her home burned around her. Her father lay on the floor of the mirror room, dead. Their castle went up in flames as a masked silver-haired ninja from Konoha carried her away in a sled pulled by several dogs.

"Hime-sama!" Sandayuu yelled, drawing her attention. "You must hurry back to the ship or you will be—!"

"No," Yukie whimpered. "I don't care if I die!" Bringing her hands to her head, she felt something break inside of her. "I'm not going back to Snow Country!"

"Quit being so selfish!" Naruto yelled while Hinata distracted Mizore. A moment later, the larger ninja managed to land a hit on the girl and sent her sprawling. "Hinata-chan!"

"Shit!" Tenten yelled, seeing Mizore's armored hand detach and fire off from the rest of the armor on his arm. As it neared, she jumped into it's path. Just as it was about to hit her, she leaned back and brought her foot up, kicking the arm up and away from Yukie and herself as she hit the snow. Behind her, Yukie fainted.

"Don't get in my way!" Mizore yelled, reeling his arm back in. A small form slipping into his guard caught his attention briefly before the chakra shield came to life in an effort to defend its user. Mizore found the breath driven out of him anyway as the much smaller kunoichi connected a kick to his stomach, launching him into the air.

"Naruto-kun, now!"

Copies of the blond were under and around the Snow-nin before he registered what was going on. "U!" a clone threw one of its brethren, slamming against his side and sending him tumbling through the air. "Zu!" Another pair of clones repeated the process. "Ma! Ki!" two more hits from other sides sent him pinballing higher. Something glowing and crackling from the ground caught his eye as one clone launched another up to meet him. "Raijin!" the blond from below yelled. Energy sword met shield, each throwing off chakra and sparks violently. The sword failed to penetrate the armor and slice into its target, but not without a price. Mizore felt part of his armor crack and break as the legendary sword shorted it out. Propelled further into the air and turned facing upwards, he found himself looking at a final blond—this one holding a glowing sphere of chakra above his head in both hands. "Rasengan rendan!" the original yelled, slamming the ball of chakra down into Mizore's unprotected chest where it exploded and sent the Snow-nin crashing into the ground below. Mizore did not get up as Naruto landed in a crouch between him and Hinata.

Seeing the defeat of one of his teammates below, Nadare narrowed his eyes at Tsunade. "Let's finish this, Hime!" he called, sealing. "Hyouton: Itsukaku Hakuegei!"

Feeling the ground rumbling beneath their feet, Tsunade and Shizune jumped aside as a gigantic horned whale made of ice burst through the ice berg beneath them, cutting off a section of the ice. "That's quite a powerful jutsu," Tsunade allowed, landing on the ice to Nadare's left while Shizune set down on his right. "It's time to get serious," she murmured.

"Anko, gather the others and run!" Shizune yelled in warning, fleeing what she was sure was soon to become the blast radius of Tsunade's next attack.

"I told you, that strength of yours is useless!" Nadare taunted, sealing and launching another of the horned whales up and over his head towards Tsunade.

Taking a deep breath, Tsunade waited until the jutsu was almost on her before releasing it. "HA!" she cried, slamming one gloved fist into the jutsu and shattering it into countless pieces. Using the residual momentum, she brought her body around in a full rotation before bringing her leg up above her head and slamming it down onto the ice below. The resulting shock wave sent cracks splintering through the ice towards Nadare. A second behind the cracks, the ice heaved and burst, erupting in a wave that looked as though it would shatter the entire ice berg under them. Waving, Tsunade jumped off after Shizune.

Snagging Yukie and slinging her over his back, Naruto followed the others as they raced towards the ship. Light glinting off metal nearby caught his eye and the boy grinned, stooping down in his run long enough to grab something off the ground before continuing his run. Shizune and Tsunade were the last to make it back to the ship, just a few seconds behind Naruto. Under them, the boat rocked violently on the waves caused by Tsunade's last attack. "Don't you think that was a little overkill?" Naruto asked, glaring at the Sannin.

Tsunade shrugged. "What's that?" she asked, eying a length of folded metal in the younger blond's hand.

Sending the Sannin a foxy smirk, Naruto answered evasively, "That's a secret," before quickly following the other kunoichi below deck to their cabin. As their boat departed the shattered remains of the ice berg, the trio of Snow ninja set down on a portion large enough to stand on—the unconscious form of Mizore held up between Fubuki and Nadare.

"I thought she'd gotten that shit out of her system," Anko grumbled, indicating the sleeping form of Yukie in the far corner of the room. They had just finished the after-battle review and were discussing the next phase of their mission.

"She nearly got us killed," Tenten added quietly.

From the other side of Naruto from Tenten, Hinata spoke up. "Perhaps her wounds run deeper than we initially thought."

"Naruto," Tsunade said, drawing the blond boy's attention from where he was playing with a scroll and a pen. Seeing she had his attention, she said, "She's your responsibility until this mission is over. Don't let her out of her sight."

"Stuck on Hime-duty again," the blond groaned, but nodded anyway. Sighing in annoyance, he went back to working on making a written seal for kage bunshin.

Seeing the blond's attention so focused, Shizune asked, "What are you working on?"

"Hmm?" the boy asked. "Oh, Temari said something the other day about a clone summoning jutsu. I'm trying to see if I can make it."

Tenten blinked. "Why would you want to summon clones? Can't you just make some?"

Naruto shook his head. "Summon clones of someone else when they're not there," he supplied, causing the kunoichi to trade looks.

After a moment, Anko took a pen from Shizune and began writing out the formula and seals for a simple human summoning scroll. "This one lets you summon a person," she explained. "Does that help?"

Naruto nodded. "I need some way of telling it who to clone and summon though."

"A seal to detect the user by blood might work," Tsunade supplied, taking the pen from Anko and scribing the seal she had in mind down.

By the time the group went to bed, Naruto had nearly four feet of scroll worth of notes on the jutsu he was attempting to create. The temperature inside the cabin had dropped drastically and everyone in the group decided it would be best if they shared sleeping bags. Naruto found himself sandwiched between Hinata and Tenten, thankful at least that he wouldn't have to put up with Anko again. The woman in question had climbed into the cabin's lone bed with Koyuki/Yukie, saying it would be best if she kept watch over the princess that night since she was the lightest sleeper of the group.

The following morning, a knock at the door preceded the entry of Sandayuu. "We have arrived at the harbor," he announced to Tsunade and Anko—Anko who had sat up upon hearing him approach the cabin and Tsunade who had heard him knock.

"Give us a few minutes," Tsunade acknowledged, getting a bow from the woman's manager as he closed the door and padded off down the hall.

Over an hour later, the group of ninja plus Yukie found themselves huddled into the back of one of the oddly shaped vehicles that had been provided for their journey to the capitol. "It would have been better if I had died that day," Yukie said quietly as Sandayuu finished his telling of the story from the revolt leading up to finding her on stage.

"Please, don't say that!" Sandayuu pleaded. "To us, the fact that you are still alive is our hope!"

"Even if I am alive, my heart is already dead." Sighing, she crossed her arms under the jacket slung over her shoulders. "Ever since that day, my tears have all dried up."

"I think you're lying," Naruto spoke up quietly across from the woman.

"Eh?" Yukie asked.

"You're just afraid."

Yukie narrowed her eyes and was about to deny the accusation, but Sandayuu continued. "After the incident, I somehow managed to become manager to Fujikaze Yukie and then I wanted until I finally found the chance to bring Hime-sama back to this country." Standing in the moving compartment, he bowed to Tsunade and the group at large. "I must apologize for not telling you sooner, but this is for the future of Snow Country." He then knelt before Yukie. "Koyuki-sama, you must overthrow Dotou and become out new Queen!" They heard his head bump the floor when he continued, "I, Sandayuu, will protect you with my life! Please, fight with us."

"No," she answered quietly. When Sandayuu picked his head up to regard her, she turned her own away from his pleading look. "It's none of my business. I refuse."

"Hime-sama..."

"Give it up already!" the woman yelled, shooting the kneeling man a glare. "Are you stupid? No matter how hard you try, there's no way you can defeat Dotou!"

Tsunade cut Naruto off before he could yell at the woman. "Actually... we could."

"What?" Yukie breathed. "No, I don't want—"

"Shut up!" Naruto yelled, silencing her. "This isn't just about what you want or don't want anymore! _You_ have been the hope that has kept the people of Snow Country alive for the past ten years and this old man is risking his life to make that dream come true! If Tsunade-baachan thinks we have even a chance of winning, then we'll give everything we have to see that that dream comes to life."

"Naruto-dono," Sandayuu muttered quietly, regarding the younger blond.

Anko yawned. "Well, as much as I hate to agree with those two... They're right. But we're going to need a plan," she said, shooting Yukie a look that did not sit well with the actress.

* * *

**  
Author's Notes:** Didn't like the first half of this chapter (ok, not the first half so much as the majority of the non Team Hokage interaction stuff and the Naruto/Anko/Hinata scene), but I felt we needed to see what was going on with Konoha and finally get some interaction between Kurenai and Hana. My prereader liked it though, so I decided it would be ok. If it felt too out of character, keep in mind that we get little to no interaction in canon with those characters (which means I can essentially build up whatever backstory and interactions with other characters I feel like, so long as I stay within the few guidelines actually set in canon) and that this is fanfiction (which means I can have them change and grow in different ways to situations not presented in canon). Also felt it would be amusing to see more Naruko/Temari interaction. Sorry if the shadowy-watching-figures-with-greek-letters-as-names didn't go over well, but I decided to leave it (under protest, actually). They'll only be very, very minor characters anyway. Thanks again to Sin Saiori for prereading.


	18. The Melancholy of Kazahana Koyuki

**The Missing Hokage**

**18: The Melancholy of Kazahana Koyuki**

* * *

Yukie sat staring out the window of one of the transport vehicles, her legs curled up against her chest and her feet bare to the cold air. In the reflection off the glass, she saw Naruto sitting across the vehicle from her. She couldn't tell if it was the original or simply a duplication, since one had stayed with the young dark-haired kunoichi—Hinata, she reminded herself—and another had joined her when she'd declared her intent to nap.

_'We need a plan,'_ Anko words echoed in her mind, followed by the quick, heated discussion between the ninja traveling with them. _'This will never work,'_ she mused. _'They're all going to die, and me along with them.'_

The vehicle they were in slowed to a stop along the side of a ridge, just outside of a large tunnel bored through the mountain they were driving over. A knock from the door drew Yukie's attention from the trees and snow outside. "Piss break!" Anko's voice yelled from outside. "If you've got to go, do it now."

Sighing in relief, Naruto produced a clone and ran outside to join the men of the cast and crew facing off the ledge beside the vehicles. Haku was nowhere in sight and Naruto shrugged it off as the older boy simply not having to go. As Yukie stood, she frowned at the clone following her from the vehicle. "You heard what she said," Yukie started, getting a nod. "Some privacy?"

"Nunuh," the blond snickered. "I'm not supposed to leave your side for the rest of the mission."

"Get used to it, Hime. When you're in power, you'll have people wanting to hold your hand while you piss and offering to wipe your ass for you," Anko grinned, leading the pair into the woods with the rest of the kunoichi. The Naruto-clone had the decency to pause at the edge of the woods and allow Anko to lead Yukie in. When they returned, he followed Yukie back to the vehicle before dispersing as they met up with the Naruto that had spawned him.

"On the other side of this cave is a village where our comrades have gathered," Sandayuu spoke to Tsunade before they boarded the vehicles and got the procession moving again. "After we finish filming here, we plan to make a formal visit. Everyone is eagerly awaiting Hime-sama's arrival... more than you can possibly know."

"How long is this cave?" Tsunade asked.

Sandayuu frowned. "Nearly five kilometers, if I am not mistaken. It has been a long time since I was last here, after all."

Nodding the Sannin made her way back towards where the other kunoichi were gathered. "Let's get moving."

"I can't see the exit," Naruto said, peering out the window some time later. They were inside the cave and all around them light from the headlights reflected off the ice.

"Long ago, this place used to be a railway," Sandayuu said.

"Railway?" Tenten asked, raising an eyebrow.

The old manager nodded. "Right now it's covered in ice, but the tracks are underneath."

A moment later, Naruto rolled his eyes. "Crap," he murmured. "I knew I shouldn't have left a kage bunshin with her." Seeing the annoyed looks he was getting from Tsunade, Shizune, Anko, and Tenten the blond sighed. "I'll go get her."

"Alone?" Hinata asked, standing as well.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. It'll probably be easier that way," the blond said, exiting the vehicle while it was still moving as the kunoichi decided to wait with the crew until they exited the tunnel.

_'Don't fool around with me!'_ Yukie nearly screamed in-mind, stumbling across the snow through the woods, panting from the exertion of her run. Her necklace clinked quietly as it bounced against her chest. _'There's no way this can work. I won't do it!'_

Pausing some distance out into the woods, Naruto lifted his nose slightly and sniffed the air. _'There it is,'_ he thought, turning slightly and breaking into a run again. It wasn't long before he saw footprints beginning to appear in the snow. It had been falling quickly enough to bury the woman's prints, but now that he was catching up to her they were beginning to appear.

Yukie stumbled as she tried to run down a small hill, rolling ass-over-elbows to land face down in the snow. Breathing hard, she closed her eyes as visions of the past swept over her again. _'Father, you liar. There is no spring in this country.'_ Some time later, the sound of feet crunching quietly in the snow caused her to open her eyes.

"How many times do you have to run away before you're satisfied?" Seeing the woman begin to pick herself up, Naruto continued. "Everyone is waiting."

Narrowing her eyes in defeat, Yukie stood, only to have her ankle give out and nearly collapse into the snow again. Naruto was there to catch her, slinging her up onto his back and marching back towards the cave. She sighed as they made their way inside, darkness quickly overtaking them. How the blond know where they were going when she couldn't see a thing was just as much of a mystery to her as everything else about the boy. "Why is it always you who finds me?" she asked after a while.

Naruto shrugged. "It's my mission. Even if you don't like it, I'll chase you wherever you go." Several steps later, feeling that she was waiting for more, he added, "I told you before. You smell nice. Like spring."

Yukie sighed against the blond's back. "I don't want to go back to that world of lies in front of the camera," she murmured quietly.

A whistle from deeper in the cave drew Naruto's attention as he turned around to face the direction it had come from. "What is that?" he asked. In front of him, his sharp eyes could make out four lines of metal running parallel melt their way out from under the ice. Looking closely, he could see chakra radiating off of them faintly.

A growing light and a grinding metal-on-metal sound caused Yukie's eyes to widen. "T-train!"

"Train?" the blond under her asked. "What's a train?" The giant metal monstrosity in question rounded the corner of the cave and Naruto's eyes widened. "That thing!?" He broke and ran in the opposite direction. _'Think, Uzumaki!'_ he yelled in-mind. _'Can't shunshin, don't know if a civilian can handle it. Sudden acceleration and deceleration is bad... Crap! Clones and rasengan?'_ he wondered. Looking back he spotted the thing plow through a thick pillar of ice stretching from the roof of the cave to the floor. _'Nope, that's out! Uhh... rasengan the walls and cause a cave in? No, that'll trap us too. Shit!'_

"We'll be run over!" Yukie yelled, looking back at the oncoming train.

"We will not!" the blond yelled back, even as the train closed on them.

"It's impossible!"

"I will not give up!"

"It's definitely impossible!" the woman screamed. She could almost feel the train bearing down on them. "Even if you do this, it's pointless! It's over!"

"Shut up! I'm not you! Uzumaki Naruto DOES NOT GIVE UP!" That decided it then, there was no choice left but to risk it. "Hold on!"

"Wha—" Yukie started to yell, only to be cut off as the world disappeared around her in a blur. She nearly heaved when the world returned to normal and the blond beneath her stumbled, flinging them into the snow to the side of the tracks. A moment later, the train rushed out of the cave. Yukie began to pull herself up as, beside her, the blond boy broke out into laughter.

Seeing her questioning look, Naruto laughed harder. "I guess you're a lot tougher than I thought, nee-chan. You didn't die," he giggled.

And behind the short rise between the mountain the cave tunneled through and the bridge, Tsunade frowned as she looked out on the armored men assembling from the nearby village. Seeing Sandayuu beginning to strap on armor himself, Tsunade made her way over quickly. "Sandayuu-san," she spoke softly, not wanting to embarrass him in front of his comrades. "Do not do something foolhardy," she warned. Any discussion they may have had on the subject was cut off a moment later.

"It's been a while, Koyuki," a voice distorted by a megaphone drew the princess' attention away from the blond to the train.

"Kazahana Dotou," she whispered, spotting the man himself standing on the train with one the ninja team from before.

"It's been ten years," Dotou spoke, his voice echoing out across the clearing. "Now, let me see your face." Dotou frowned as the orange-and-black clad blond with Koyuki stood in front of her, blocking his sight of his niece. A rumble from his left drew his attention towards where several logs had been sent down the mountain-side to slam into the side of their armored train.

Standing, Naruto pulled Yukie to her feet and the world blurred for the woman again. She found herself standing between Tsunade and Naruto, several men in old Snow Country armor stood before them. "Everyone! Koyuki-hime is watching!" Sandayuu called. "Victory will be ours!" he yelled, drawing a rallying cry from the men.

"Sandayuu?" Yukie murmured, seeing for the first time the proof of what the blond boy beside her had been trying to impart.

"Kazahana Dotou," Sandayuu continued, unsheathing his katana and raising it into the air above his head. "Do you know how long we have waited for this day? I am Asabasan Sandayuu, a representative of the 50th Brigade. Now we will avenge the death of Kazahana Sousetsu-sama from a decade ago!"

"Yeah!" the gathered men yelled, weapons rising into the air along with Sandayuu's.

"Hmph. There are still people like that around?" Dotou asked.

"My deepest apologies," Nadare bowed. "I will go and deal with them now."

"No," Dotou smirked. "They need to experience something that is absolutely hopeless.

As the men gave a collective roar and charged, Tsunade narrowed her eyes as several compartments slid open and popped up on nearly every car of the train. "Naruto," she spoke calmly down towards the smaller blond. Seeing she had his attention, she smirked. "Shield."

Grinning, the blond's hands came together into the seal for kage bunshin, several dozen clones popping into existence and disappearing into shunshins. They reappeared in front of the advancing men, already sealing as a rapid-fire mechanical clicking issued forth from the train. As what looked like a nearly solid wall of steel advanced on the charging men and Naruto-clones, the charge slowed in fear at the sight. A moment later, several dozen voices cried out at once, "Fuuton: Daitoppa!"

Dotou's smirk dropped off his face and his eyes widened as a gale-force wind kicked up from the multitude of blonds, driving wind and snow towards the train. He ducked down behind cover a moment later—followed closely by Nadare—when the wind picked up the kunai his men were firing and flung them back with greater force. The firing stopped almost immediately, the men manning the cannons shredded. Standing, Dotou surveyed the damage. A moment later, an explosion from atop the mountain drew his attention as a woman in a brown trench coat leaped away from the site of the explosion.

The train began to move away from the oncoming avalanche even as Tsunade dropped out of a shunshin beside it. "It's not going to be that easy!" the Sannin called, picking up one of the logs that had been sent down the hill and slamming it against the side of the train, derailing the rear cars and sending them sliding off the cliff on the other side of the train.

"Uncouple the rear cars!" Dotou commanded, flinching as several more kunoichi peppered the side of the train with explosive-tagged kunai. He glared as he saw the men he'd meant to kill in order to demoralize his niece scurry into the tunnel and away from the danger zone. The train shook beneath him as the bridge they were crossing over exploded. A moment later, only the train's engine and the car Dotou rode in were left to speed clear of the blast and onrushing snow.

"Don't follow them any further," Tsunade called to Anko, who looked eager to continue this little game of cat and mouse. She could hear Anko whine from where she stood as the train cleared the bend in the mountain and disappeared from view.

"I told you we wouldn't just give up," Naruto smirked from beside Yukie.

From inside the tunnel, the armored men streamed out while the cast and crew slowly began to creep over the small rise they had hidden behind to rejoin Yukie/Koyuki. Spotting Sandayuu, Tsunade marched over to the old man with murder in her eyes. Raising her hand, she slapped the actress' manager. "The next time I tell you not to do something foolish and you do something foolish anyhow, we will leave you to your fate."

Sandayuu bowed his head. "I apologize, Tsunade-sama.

Anko snorted. "What the fuck were you idiots planning to do? Run up and poke it with your swords?"

"Anko," Shizune chided quietly.

"They were simply acting upon the feelings in their hearts," Haku supplied from beside the medic.

"Hime-sama," Sandayuu addressed Koyuki, bowing lower. "I am very sorry to get you involved in this. I, and everyone else... Because you are here we have not lost our hope. Ever since you were a child, and even now, you were always our princess. Please Hime-sama, believe in yourself."

Yukie shook her head. "We should go home. If we stay in this country any longer we won't be able to return safely. We're heading back," she said, starting back towards the vehicles without waiting for any response from the others.

Looking around at the disappointed looks on the gathered natives' faces, Naruto almost growled. _'What does it take to get it through her thick skull?!'_ he wondered. Thinking back to what she had said in the cave and even before that, in the bar, he shouted, "What are you going back to? That world of lies in front of the camera you hate so much?" Seeing her stop and turn her head to regard him, he asked, "This _is_ you home, isn't it? If you really want to go home, then defeat Dotou and go back to your home!"

"You don't know anything." Yukie murmured. "There is no spring in this country. It's a place where your tears freeze and your heart will turn to stone."

"You can change that," Hinata called softly from beside the blond boy. "Sandayuu-san and everyone else here believe that you can."

"Stop talking nonsense!" the woman growled, resuming her trek back to the trucks that had brought them there.

Running up to the older woman, Naruto grabbed her hand and spun her around. "Wait a minute!"

"Leave me alone!"

"I won't!" the blond yelled right back. "Look at them!" he shouted in her face, waving back towards the gathered civilians. "Can't you see that they need you?"

Yukie started to tell the little brat that she didn't care, but paused when she saw his eyes widening. Turning around, she spotted something massive rising from the other side of the cliffs the vehicles were parked near. A door opened in the side of what looked to be part of the train, Mizore standing just inside. The left arm of his chakra armor suit shot out, snagging Yukie. "Shit!" the woman screamed as she was hauled violently from the ground. Above, Fubuki circled around the blimp and flung down several kunai with small glass spheres tied to their ends.

"Ah fuck," Anko groaned as she and the other kunoichi scattered, the civilians ducking back into the cave as the kunai hit the ground and the glass balls tied to them burst open, sending giant spikes of ice growing up from the ground and spearing into their vehicles.

As the kunai came raining down, Naruto focused on the blimp pulling away. "Let's hope this works," he murmured. A shunshin later, he stumbled as he landed on the rear deck of the blimp on what used to be part of a train car. Scrambling for a handhold, the boy quickly slid inside the door.

On the ground, Tsunade watched the blond enter the blimp with an annoyed look. "Impetuous," she murmured.

Beside Tsunade, Shizune nodded. "It isn't exactly as we've planned, but we _have_ infiltrated them. They will lead us straight to wherever they're they're conducting operations out of. This simply means we will need to adjust our plan to account for not having Naruto-kun from the start and to swing by wherever they will be keeping him and Koyuki-hime to pick them up before we leave."

"Yeah, but it was going to be easier just to trash the place and wait for Dotou to pop his ugly head out so we can stick a kunai in it as opposed to attempting to infiltrate and assasinate," Anko shook her head. "Shit always happens to him."

On the train car/blimp, Yukie sat on a plush couch, her legs crossed and an annoyed look on her face. "You have become beautiful, Koyuki," Dotou complimented from where he stood in front of her. "Do you have the Hexagonal Crystal?"

"Yes."

"That's good," Dotou grinned, continuing. "That is the only thing that connects the Kazahana family as a whole. And it's also the key to the treasure."

Yukie blinked, looking up to regard her uncle. "'The key to the treasure?'" she repeated.

"When I took over this country from your father, there was nothing left of the Kazahana family. Sousetsu must have kept the treasure elsewhere. I looked for it, and I finally found it," he explained. "It's a massive weapon hidden in the Rainbow Glaciers. And I have found a keyhole that fits the Hexagonal Crystal. If I get a hold of the Kazahana's weapon, our country will have the power to overcome the other shinobi nations!"

"Like we'd ever let that happen!" a boy's voice called out from behind Yukie.

She turned and leaned out of her seat to find herself looking at the blond brat. Somehow, he had gotten aboard. "You!"

"You bastard," Dotou ground out, recognizing him as the boy who had so easily defeated them before. "How did you get in here?"

A foxy smirk crossed the blond's face. "Intruder window," he snickered. A moment later, several wires wrapped themselves around his form, fired by ninja on the area above. Mizore jumped down, smashing the blond on the back of the head and sending him to the ground as the doors opened behind them to admit a smirking Fubuki over a pile of tied-up clones.

"My deepest apologies," Nadare said, kneeling before Dotou. "That brat was quite troublesome."

"So, he can use Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu?" Dotou mused aloud.

From above the Naruto he'd knocked down, Mizore said, "I don't understand it well, but this kid... It seems he has an enormous amount of chakra."

Nadare nodded. "Just in case something happens, should we attach the device?" he asked of Dotou.

"Yes. We have an interesting guinea pig," Dotou smirked.

A slot on the wall opened at the press of a switch and Nadare extracted a palm-sized circular device, a red and blue yin-yang symbol adorning its top like those on their chakra armor. He pulled the base apart from the top, an electrical hum filling the air and small currents of electricity jumping through the air from one side to the other. He slapped the device against Naruto's stomach and gave it a twist before letting go. Eight small wires wormed their way out of the device and slammed into Naruto's stomach even as the device pumped several volts of electricity into him. Naruto yelled in pain, just barely catching what Dotou was saying.

"It is a chakra control device," the man answered Yukie's question as to what it was. "It is the ultimate technique for sucking out chakra. It also creates an impenetrable wall around him. He won't be able to pull it off, nor will he be able to destroy it. There's no way."

Falling to the ground, Naruto focused on the clones behind him. "My power... is fading," he choked out. He willed the clones to disperse, creating a large cloud of chakra and smoke at their disappearance and leaving several loops of wire behind.

"You're not a real ninja," Nadare gloated. "Just a little brat."

"Damn it," Naruto ground out quietly, closing his eyes and letting his head his the floor as he relaxed his body.

"Now then," Dotou said, directing his attention back to Koyuki. "Will you hand over the Hexagonal Crystal?" It was with a defeated look that Yukie unzipped her jacket and untied the necklace before handing it to her uncle. "Oh ho," the man grinned, taking hold of the necklace. He frowned. "This is..." He glared as he grabbed Koyuki by the front of her jacket and pulled her closer. "Don't fuck around with me! This is just a fake!"

Gasping, Yukie looked towards his clenched hand. "That's not possible..." the woman breathed. A moment later, she closed her eyes in realization. "Tsunade."

"What?"

From over the blond on the floor, Nadare nodded. "I see. The Sannin would be able to switch it easily."

"We will bring Tsunade right away," Fubuki suggested.

"There is no need for that," Dotou shook his head, throwing Koyuki back as he released her. "They will soon come to us. And I shall wait until then," he chuckled, his fist clenching around the false crystal and crushing it. None of them noticed the single Naruto-clone that had survived, perched on the side of the blimp and watching through the window. Then again, why would they when he was currently invisible to all but dojutsu?

* * *

Naruto yelled in pain as, once again, he attempted to channel chakra to break the restraints holding him in place and the device attached to his stomach shocked the living shit out of him. "Shit," the boy groaned, hanging limply as soon as the electrical charge abated. After a moment, the boy chuckled. "If I'd known something like this was going to happen, I'd have trained more in Nawanuke no Jutsu."

Deciding to wait for the moment, Naruto heard a door open a few moments later and the footsteps of three people approaching. Two of the strides were longer and heavier than the other, indicating two men and a woman or two men and someone smaller. Naruto closed his eyes and relaxed his body. As the footsteps drew near, he slitted his eyes open just enough to see two men place Yukie in a cell across from his. After closing her cell door, they walked away and Naruto opened his eyes.

Sitting against the floor of her cell, her knees tucked to her chest, Yukie tensed when she felt eyes on her. Sliding her eyes to the right and following the move with her head, she found the annoying blond regarding her from across the way. "Well deserved," she said after a moment.

"You too," the boy grinned.

"I guess so," the woman agreed.

"Spring..." Naruto mused aloud. Seeing he had her attention, he asked, "'There is no spring.' What does that mean?"

Narrowing her eyes slightly, Yukie debated whether or not to tell the boy. _'We're just going to die here anyway. What does it matter?'_ she thought. "'When it is spring, you will be able to see.' ...That's what my father said," she murmured. Closing her eyes, she felt memories wash over her again. Memories of a young girl's beloved father telling her of the spring. Pushing the memory away, she sighed. "But there is no spring in this country. My father died. I ran away from this country and I decided to stop believing. I keep on running and running away and I keep on telling lies. I even lie to myself. So I act like other people. I can only be an actress. There is nothing else for me."

"Then stop running," the blond said softly, drawing her attention to those bright blue eyes looking directly back into her own.

"Even if I do that, nothing is going to change." After a moment, she added. "You have to give up in the end."

_'I knew it. She is too afraid to even try,'_ he thought. Giving it a moment of thought, he said, "If you give up, I'm sure it will be quite a relief." Seeing he had her attention, he continued quietly. "No one will bother you or even pay attention to you."

Yukie frowned. Something about the way he said that... _'He sounds as though he knows. But how would he? He grew up with a home, a family, surrounded by friends...'_

Naruto's next words confirmed her suspicion and smashed any thoughts that he had grown up with any of those things to bits. "It was alright, but it was still really painful. I felt there was no place for me in this world. But I have friends now. And when I actually tried, good things happened. If you just give up, your dreams and everything else will end right here." He paused for moment then recalled something she had said before. "You keep asking what it is I want. What do _you_ want?"

"Huh?"

The blond grinned as he continued. "What do you want most in the world?"

Seeing the look on the blond boy's face—seeing beyond the mask he wore that was so much like her own—she felt compelled to answer. And so she told him. "I want..."

Several hours later, the sound of footsteps echoed quietly down the hall. Looking up from where he had been thinking about the princess' words, Naruto saw only empty air in front of his cell. A moment later, his sharp eyes picked up a tell-tale distortion and he grinned. "It's about time."

Yukie looked up and out across the division between the cells towards where Naruto appeared to be speaking to empty air. A moment later, a cloaked form shimmered into view. The cloak's hood was pulled back, followed by a second—much closer—inner hood to reveal a head of blond hair. "Sorry, this place is pretty big," the clone shrugged. "You're lucky I followed you in or I'd have never found where they stashed our gear."

"Bastards took my sword," the boy in the cell grumbled.

The Naruto outside nodded. "It's here too," he said. After a moment, he added. "The others will be providing a distraction soon."

The building shook faintly and the blond in the cell rolled his eyes. "'Soon,' you say?" he snickered.

Outside, the other blond pulled up his cowl and hood before disappearing again. Footsteps came running down the hall towards Naruto's cell, two men intending to run past it. They had just enough time to register a brief distortion in the air as the blond's cloak fluttered open and something golden and crackling sweeping across their field of vision before they died. From her cell, Yukie cringed. "Hey look, keys," the blond outside grinned, pulling out a key ring. Eying the tag on the cell door, he pulled it off and slid the door open. "I bet that would have shocked the piss out of you if you'd done something stupid like breaking the chains and trying to force open the cell door by hand."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Don't think I wasn't considering it," the boy grinned. "Now, get me down." Once the clone had the original free, the boy regarded the chakra restraint device over his stomach. "What do we do about this?"

"Rasengan?" the clone asked.

The original shook his head. "Too risky." Giving it a moment of thought, the boy started, "You remember when we fought those guys the first time?"

"Our rasengan didn't hit the shield," the other blond nodded, catching on quickly. "Think the Raijin shorted it?"

Naruto shrugged. "It's worth a shot." A moment later, he was flung across the room by a blast of lightening based chakra. On his stomach, the chakra restraint device cracked before falling off. "Ow," the original groaned. Standing, he quickly accepted his gear from the clone and threw his own cloak on. "Well, at least now we know it can be used for more than just cutting," he mused quietly, sliding the sword into his belt. Swinging the keys from the guards around his fingers as the clone dispersed, Naruto grinned towards Yukie. "Ready to go?"

After opening her cell, Naruto lead Yukie down the side of the cells to an elevator, which they took to the top. Stepping out, they made their way down the hall only for a familiar green-clad form to drop down in front of them. "You sure took your sweet time," Naruto grumbled at Tsunade.

The Sannin in question shrugged. "Sorry to keep you waiting."

"You switched the Hexagonal Crystal for a fake, didn't you?" Yukie asked.

Tsunade grinned. "Sorry, I figured those guys were after it," she said, fishing around in a pocket before handing the necklace back to Yukie.

"Just for this..." the actress mused quietly. A commotion from ahead drew her attention to where several guards had been slammed into a wall just inside the door ahead of them. They were very obviously dead—either from the impact or the bladed weapons turning them into pincushions..

"We can't hold that area any longer," Tenten called as she and Hinata ran in towards Naruto, Tsunade, and Yukie.

"What about the others?" Tsunade asked.

Hinata answered quickly. "Anko-san, Shizune-senpai, and Haku-san were beginning their attack when I last saw them." The building shook around them as though to emphasize the smaller girl's words.

"Down here," Yukie called, turning and leading the group in the opposite direction from the entrance the kunoichi had used. After several minutes of running and a brief stop to plan their next move, the group found themselves inside of a large, unlit open room. Halfway across the room, the lights turned on, illuminating the form of Dotou sitting on a raised throne.

"Well done, Koyuki," the man chuckled.

Narrowing her eyes, Tsunade turned to regard the princess in question when the woman ran past the Sannin and up the steps. "Wait!" she called, attempting to give chase only for three forms familiar to materialize before her. "Don't tell me..."

Handing the Hexagonal Crystal over to Dotou, Yukie turned to regard the group. "Everyone seems to have forgotten that I am an actress."

"It's true," Dotou gloated. "Koyuki acted the whole scene."

Looking down, she focused on the smaller blond whose eyes were boring into her own. "Yes, the whole thing is an act," the actress murmured. From her jacket, she drew the small red and gold sheathed dagger she had taken from Sandayuu shortly before fleeing from the small caravan they had been traveling in. Dropping the sheathe, she turned and stepped forward, slamming the weapon into Dotou up to the hilt. "That's why I said I am an actress!"

"You bitch," Dotou ground out, shoving her away and wrapping a hand around her throat.

"Nee-chan!" Naruto yelled from below. _'Hang on Hime, you've still got three wishes left,'_ he thought quickly. As he drew in the chakra to shunshin, her voice held him in place for a moment.

"I knew about this, Naruto," she croaked out. "I knew when I returned here I would die." Leaning forward, she grasped the hand clutching her throat. "That is why at least..."

"Stop it!" the boy yelled, forgetting his jutsu. "Nee-chan!"

"It was all thanks to you, Naruto-kun... Until the very end, I kept running away."

"What you're doing now is the same thing! You can't die!" the blond yelled, his words falling on deaf ears as Yukie's eyes fluttered and her legs lost the strength to hold her up, pitching her and Dotou off the raised throne platform. The blond flinched when he heard and saw their bodies hit the ground from the nearly twenty-foot drop.

Naruto started to run forward but stopped when Dotou stood, chuckling. "I'm not going to die from this toy-like katana," he said, untying his robes as the weapon fell harmlessly to the floor. Dropping his robes exposed the black set of chakra armor he had worn under the robes. "That's right. This is the new, advanced model of chakra armor!" he smirked at the looks passing over the foursome's faces. As Yukie coughed and returned slowly to consciousness behind him, he stooped and picked her up effortlessly.

"Keep your filthy hands off of her!" Naruto growled.

"Naruto!" Yukie yelled, watching helplessly as Naruto was sent sprawling back from a backhand from Dotou.

"It's pointless. Your chakra is completely..." Dotou paused as he regarded the swiftly standing blond.

A foxy smirk crossed the boy's face as he saw the direction of the man's gaze. "Sealed?" he finished.

A metallic click preceded the wings on the back of Dotou's armor extending as he lifted off the ground, Yukie slung under his right arm. "Let's go, Koyuki. To the place beyond the rainbow."

Above them, the roof collapsed as Dotou made his escape towards it. "Shit!" the blond growled, pulling out a kunai tied with a thin rope and flinging it, where it wrapped around Yukie's arm, pulling the boy up with the pair. Below them, the trio of Snow-nin and the three from Team Hokage fled the room, evading the falling debris. Shooting up and out of the castle, Dotou frowned as he noticed an unbalanced weight tugging off to his right. Looking down, he saw the blond annoyance attempting to climb up the rope. Smirking, he looped back around and cut the line, sending Naruto falling into the forest below.

"Naruto!"

_'This is going to hurt,'_ the blond boy mused during what seemed like an impossibly long fall. Finally, he felt his back slam into the branches of a tree and not long thereafter collide with the ground. "Shit," the boy wheezed, standing from the wreckage of the tops of three separate pine trees. "I'm not going to give up." He could feel Kyuubi's chakra leaking out to the various wounds across his body, healing them quickly. Stumbling forward, he murmured, "Even if you don't like it, I'll chase after you wherever you go." He could hear what sounded like a motor approaching. Not wanting to have to deal with the possibility of a fight with one of those chakra-armored freaks, Naruto felt that perhaps it would be best to simply run for once. After all, he wasn't running away from danger, he was running forward to save the princess. Channeling chakra, he disappeared, leaving a glowing blue trail in his wake.

Elsewhere in the forest, Tenten and Hinata ran side by side, ducking out of the way of several kunai thrown by the flying form of Fubuki. Ice crystals exploded up from the ground, forcing the pair into the trees. "Now?" Tenten yelled.

"Not yet!" Hinata called, watching the flying kunoichi carefully through her Byakugan as she dropped back to the snow-covered ground.

Ahead of the ex-Hyuuga, Mizore sped towards her on a snow board, one arm cocked back in an obvious effort to smash her as he neared. "Whatever you do will be useless!" Pulling out several kunai, Hinata flung them at the oncoming figure. "I told you, it's useless!" he yelled, swinging his arm as he bore down on her.

"You're wrong," Hinata spoke softly, drawing her last weapon from under her cloak. A crackle and a flash of gold slammed into Mizore's shield, shorting out the chakra armor and dispersing the Raijin clone in her hand with the feedback. Ducking to the side as he stumbled off of his board, Hinata brought her gloved fist up and quickly smashed it into Mizore's head. The larger man flew back away from the dark-haired girl, the back of his skull cracking open on a tree with the sheer force of the punch. Seeing his heart slowly stop beating, Hinata turned her attention back towards Fubuki and Tenten. "Now!"

Tenten opened up one of her scrolls, slapping seals on it as weapons flew out in front of Fubuki. "You missed!" the older kunoichi taunted, only to feel her wings sheered off by the wires attached to the weapons as her flight turned into a fall. Wrapped into the residual wires, she used the enhanced strength granted by the chakra armor to snap them before landing on a tree branch. "We Snow ninja aren't that weak!"

"Maybe," a voice called from behind Fubuki. She turned to find the real Tenten swinging another Raijin clone at her. "But you're kind of stupid!" she yelled, slamming the other kunoichi towards the ground as the Raijin clone dispelled and the chakra armor protecting the kunoichi shorted out. Dropping down, she checked on Fubuki—the older kunoichi's chakra armor smoking faintly. "What do we do with this one?" she asked towards Hinata, finding the woman still alive.

Giving the question a bit of thought, the smile that crossed her face almost scared Tenten. The bun-haired girl had never seen that look cross the younger girl's face before, nor one like it. Hinata reached into one of her pouches to produce a roll of wire and a scroll. "I may have an idea," she suggested.

"So, do you really think you can win against me?" Nadare called out to Tsunade across from him. "None of your techniques work against me." He chuckled, adding, "You ran away with your tail between your legs last time."

"Then I guess it's time for something new," the Sannin shrugged, pulling a cloned Raijin from under her cloak.

"Hyouton: Rouga Nadare no jutsu!" Nadare called, finishing his seals as Tsunade charged forward. Snow began to flow down the mountain to his right in a controlled avalanche, swiftly condensing and forming into a pack of ice wolves. Tsunade dodged and weaved through the jutsu, drawing the Raijin back in her right hand and extending the golden blade. "What?" Nadare murmured, even as Tsunade slammed the blade through one of his wolves and smashed it into his chest. The yin yang symbol on his left shoulder marking whatever powered or controlled the chakra armor exploded as the Raijin clone dispersed.

The avalanche created by Nadare's jutsu grew uncontrolled, spilling both of them from the cliff towards the ground below. "You depend too much on that armor!" the Sannin yelled. Grabbing onto Nadare's feet as they neared the ground, Tsunade shifted, spinning the both of them around and slamming Nadare into the ground head first with all the strength she could muster. She was unsurprised when his head liquefied upon hitting the ground and every bone from his hips down shattered. "Now to regroup with the others," she murmured, dropping the corpse.

Back on the iced over lake surrounded by the Rainbow Glaciers, Yukie sat and watched as the glaciers began to glow. _'You trusted some _kid _with your heart Yukie, and now he's going to let you down,'_ the woman mused quietly. _'But he promised...'_

"Where is it?" Dotou's voice snapped her out of her thoughts on a certain orange-and-black clad blond. "Where is the treasure?"

Around them, steam began to flood the area and small rivulets of water ran from melting ice on the 'glaciers.' "It's getting warm," Yukie mumbled, even as snow began to melt from the surrounding rocks. "This is..."

"A generator?!" Dotou asked in shock, realizing the truth of his brother's work. "If this what you call Kazahana's treasure?!"

"Nee-chan!" a familiar voice called out from across the frozen-over lake.

Yukie's heart skipped a beat, sighting the blond stepping out onto the ice. "Naruto!"

Dotou began sealing, even as a blue glow of chakra surrounded the boy's form and it shot towards them at an impossible speed, snow rooster-tailing above the ice surface of the lake behind the boy. "Hyouton: Kokuryuu Boufuusetsu!" Dotou yelled, thrusting his fist forward and sending a black dragon of wind and ice towards the blond. Unable to stop in time, the blond slammed into the jutsu and was launched into the air.

The blond vaguely heard Yukie screaming his name as he came crashing down onto the surface of the lake—cracking the ice around him. _'Ow. Note to self: running into a jutsu while using shunshin is a bad thing. Actually, make that: using shunshin to run into anything is bad, but especially a jutsu. Can't dodge for shit,'_ he mused. Groaning, he pulled himself up onto his knees. "What's the matter?" the boy taunted, a foxy grin slipping onto his face. "It's not affecting me at all."

"Naruto, please stop!" Yukie yelled, drawing the boy's attention. "This time you really will die!"

"I can't do that, nee-chan. You've still got three wishes left," the boy ground out, pulling himself the rest of the way to his feet. A faint red aura began to wisp around the blond as his most recent wounds healed.

"What the hell is this chakra?" Dotou whispered, feeling the building killing intent in the air along with the chakra. Rushing the blond, he pulled his fist back for an enhanced punch that would smash the blond boy's skull in. "Die!" he yelled as Naruto leaned back at the last minute, sending Dotou's hand slamming into the weakening ice. The effect was similar to what Tsunade had done in her first fight against Nadare, though not nearly on the same scale. The ice shattered in a shock wave, sending the blond slipping below the freezing water's surface.

Naruto's eyes unconsciously closed as he fell below the surface, a brief vision of fire and a dark haired princess flashing before his mind's eye. On the surface, Yukie collapsed to her knees, her eyes locked onto the place where Naruto had went under. _'He's dead. He's really dead this time.'_

Somewhere under the surface of the lake, Naruto's eyes snapped open. _'Hey Kyuubi! Stop dicking around down there doing nothing! Are you going to help me kick this guy's ass or not?'_

From the back of his mind, Naruto could feel the fox's leer. **It's about time.**

Feeling the ice rumble under his feet, Dotou frowned and turned back around to regard the hole he'd made in the ice. His eyes narrowed as they made out the ominous red glow painting the water the color of blood from below. "What is that?"

And behind him, Yukie's eyes widened. _'I've felt this once before,'_ she thought, a more recent memory coming to mind—a blond haired boy suddenly appearing before her, eyes red and slitted as a wave of _something_ washed over the area.

The water in front of Dotou surged upwards before nearly a hundred orange-and-black clad forms broke its surface, leaping high into the air. It seemed Naruto had fallen back onto tajuu kage bunshin. "I'll pay back what you did to me a thousand times!"

"Big words, for a brat!" Dotou yelled, sealing. "Soryuu Boufuusetsu!" he called, sending a dragon spiraling out from each hand this time. They circled around into the air, ripping through the Naruto-clones and popping them as though they weren't even there before spiraling up around their owner, creating a huge black tornado to disperse the remainder of the clones. As the jutsu dispersed, Dotou smirked before bursting into laughter. "It's all over." The laughter stopped when Dotou felt that the killing intent had not dissipated in the least. If anything, it seemed to have grown.

"I told you, it's not over yet," a voice called across the ice, drawing Dotou's attention towards the blond—or rather, the pair of blonds. The one on the left grinned, holding up a crackling golden blade. Aside from that, it looked perfectly normal. "If you say something is over," it said, the other blond picking up where it had left off. "It means justice prevails and you've already lost!" It was this blond that worried Dotou. Red chakra shrouded the boy—a pair of chakra ears laid back against the top of his head and a long chakra tail whipping about behind him. In the blond's cupped hands, a violet colored ball of pure chakra spun madly, visible wisps of red chakra leaking into and out of the sphere. "It's obvious that the story will have a happy ending!" the pair grinned.

_'Is he really going to do it?'_ the princess wondered for a moment. Hope surged in her chest, drawing a yell from her. "Naruto! I believe in you!"

"I already knew that," the blond with the sword grinned, disappearing into a blue streak of chakra and dispersing from the force as it slammed its Raijin into Dotou's form with a cracking sound reminiscent of a lightening strike, sending him skidding backwards just as the sun topped the mountains surrounding the lake and lit the mirrors circling it. The rest of Team Hokage arrived just in time to see the Kyuubi-powered Naruto vanish into a red streak of chakra, faint wisps of rainbow-colored chakra spiraling into and around the rasengan in his hand. A waver in the air behind Dotou preceded the de-cloaking of a second Naruto, a similar rasengan already spun up in his hands. "Rasengan!" the pair yelled, striking at the same time. The force of the two jutsu exploding caused both Narutos to vanish as the pair of spheres detonated against Dotou, liquefying his internal organs in the process. This time, the boy had made sure that there would be enough force in the attack to do lasting damage, even through the armor.

A final Naruto shimmered into view nearby, a grim look on his now-exposed face as he pulled out the Raijin and activated the blade. Swinging the lightening blade down he finished the job, severing Dotou's head above the top of his now-dead chakra armor. Deactivating the sword and sticking it back on his belt, he kicked head and body both across the ice and into the hole Dotou had made, sending them straight to the bottom. After taking a moment to recompose himself, he turned his attention back towards Yukie. "That's two," he smiled, though it didn't quite reach his eyes. Around them, the residual ice on the glaciers cracked and fell off. Green spread across the area, melting snow and growing fresh grass and flowers as soon as the stored chakra touched the ground.

From her kneeling position behind the rock she'd been using for cover, Yukie's eyes widened as she surveyed the field of green that had suddenly sprung up around them. Her attention was drawn away from the blond, the grass, and her uncle's promised fate by a voice echoing over the freshly-thawed lake. "Believe in the future. If you do, spring will come." Yukie found herself staring at a gigantic representation of that night with her father, a younger version of herself hovering above the now-glowing water's surface. "Koyuki, what would you like to do when spring comes?" her father's voice asked from across the years.

"I'll become a princess," Koyuki's childish voice answered.

"Oh? What kind of princess?"

"Hm," her younger self hummed, her head tilting to one side as the considered the question. "A kind, strong one." A grin spreading across her face, Koyuki threw her hands out in excitement. "A princess who believes in justice!"

Her father chuckled. "That's going to be very hard work," he teased.

"I did say that before," Yukie murmured.

Across the lake from the princess, Naruto had collapsed back onto the grass to watch, Hinata laying against his side and Tenten sitting next to him. Above and behind them, the others of Team Hokage stood watching as Koyuki's father continued. "But if you don't give up and keep on believing in your dreams, one day—for sure—you will become one," he said. The gathered group got their first look at Kazahana Sousetsu as he stepped into the picture.

Yukie's eyes widened as she saw her father for the first time in ten years—and possibly the last time. The man stood behind her younger self and tied the glowing Hexagonal Crystal around Koyuki's neck. As he finished tying the necklace on, her father looked up—straight at Yukie—and asked, "Can you see... that a very beautiful princess is standing here?" he asked, a knowing smile lighting his face.

Tears slid down Yukie's face unbidden, even as her younger self continued. "But I'm not quite decided yet. There is one more thing I want to become."

"What is it?" her father asked, regarding her younger self again.

Koyuki turned to smile at her father. "An actress!"

"Mm?" her father hummed, then broke into laughter. On the ground, Yukie laughed as well, her tears flowing freely now.

Naruto grinned. "I told you I'd give you your happy ending," the boy laughed quietly, closing his eyes and deciding this would be a good time for a nap. Beside him, Hinata apparently agreed.

Three days later, Team Hokage attended a mid-day coronation ceremony, crowning Kazahana Koyuki as the ruler of Snow Country. As the ceremony drew to a close, Koyuki cradled her necklace as she spoke privately to the gathered shinobi who had dragged her kicking and screaming this far. "The device was incomplete, after all..."

"So, it's going to be winter again?" Hinata asked.

Koyuki shook her now-thankfully-hatless head. "Nn. Not at all. We'll use the device and study it, and if we refine it then one day Snow Country will be called Spring Country."

"It's going to be a waste," Tenten sighed. "You're so popular and now you're going to quit acting."

"Who said I would stop acting?" the woman grinned, drawing a surprised look from most of those present. "As the monarchy and actress of Snow Country, I will show that I can do both." Holding up a small green book to her chest, she smiled down at the blond that had harassed, cajoled, and hounded her every step of the way—nearly driving her crazy in the process. "It's stupid to give up, isn't it?"

Anko's eyes widened seeing the green book. "T-that's...!" she spluttered.

"Well, see you later!" the woman smiled, picking up the bottom of her long dress and running towards where a few of the film crew stood waiting to start a photo shoot. She was ambushed along the way by a gaggle of children, all waving about notebooks and markers and begging for a signature. "Ok, ok!" Koyuki smiled, accepting a marker.

"Oh, right," Shizune grinned, reaching into a pocket and pulling out a small envelope marked in the bottom right corner with a rainbow and stars. "Koyuki-hime asked me to give this to you," she said, handing the envelope to Naruto.

Opening the paper, Naruto dug out a photograph. In it, he and Hinata lay sprawled against the new, green grass. Kneeling above the boy, Koyuki had pressed a kiss to the corner of his lips. Atop the photo was written, _Uzumaki Naruto-sama. Never give up on your dreams._ It was signed, _Fujikaze Yukie_.

After a moment of looking the photo over, the blond grinned. "That's a pretty good picture."

Seemingly hearing the boy's praise, Koyuki turned from signing autographs and beamed a smile at the boy. _'Maybe if you were a little older... Oh well, two out of three isn't bad.'_

"Icha Icha, The Movie," Anko moaned in near-ecstasy, earning an eye-roll from the group.

"Are we done here, Tsunade-shishou?" Shizune asked, regarding her mentor.

Pulling her own wide hat up to rest atop her head, Tsunade nodded. A small smile stretched across her face as she turned to lead the group out of the city towards the port. "Yeah. I think we're done for now."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Sorry if this one is a bit shorter than the last few of the Wave/Snow arc, but I felt I should end it on a high note.

If you don't like Raijin beating the chakra armor, that's really just too bad. Especially since, in the movie, Chidori and Raikiri—both lightening based jutsu—do exactly what I had the Raijin do here. Also, even if they don't have the chakra to sustain using the sword for very long, the others who used it—namely Tenten and Hinata—only used it for a moment before the copies they wielded were destroyed. And yes, at this point they've all had enough time to play with it enough to know at least how to activate it.

The next chapter, while already written, won't be out for a while. Needs serious editing and rewriting in parts. Problem is, I hate focusing on editing when I can just go on and write another two chapters immediately after that.

Once again, huge thanks go out to Sin Saiori for prereading the Wave/Snow arc and generally helping to make it turn out better than it would have otherwise.

Warning, serious rant ahead. You have been warned.

sigh On a side note, as of today (9/16/8) I am turning off anonymous reviews. It's been fun while it's lasted, but if you want to complain you're going to have to do it from a registered account. To those Anon out there who have left or would leave reviews with more than simple nitpicking over something not going their way (creative criticism I don't mind, in fact I welcome it. Nitpicking pisses me off almost as much as flames with no more content than 'ur stry sux i h8u.' Even well-thought-out flames would be preferable), I thank you for your time and am sorry to have left you without a means of reviewing anonymously (I use anonymous reviews myself, so I know just how annoying it is when an author turns them off). Honestly, if you've got something to point out or a genuine complaint beyond "I don't like character/scene/idea/thing X" or are at least willing to give an explanation for why beyond "it's canon that X happened, you can't retcon canon" then I really don't mind answering so long as it doesn't spoil things too badly. If the above is all you really have to say, then you're wasting both my time and your own--yours for having written out the review when you could have just stopped reading and mine for having read your review when you left no explanation beyond "I didn't like it because you disagree with canon." As many authors have pointed out, this is fanfiction. That means that the authors get to explore various things that didn't happen in canon specifically BECAUSE they did not happen in canon. You have suspended disbelief to read/watch a story about a world of ninja where a boy gets a demon fox bonded to him at birth, where ninja throw around insane and nonsensical techniques like they're going out of style, where people with special eyes know how you're going to move before you do and can steal all of your techniques while they do it, where a guy runs around with six bodies 'cause his magic eyes let him, where GIANT TOADS AND SLUGS are about the most destructive thing you can throw at your enemy, where at least four of the main bad guys have found some form of limited immortality and/or agelessness (Orochimaru, Kakuzu, Hidan, Sasori), where there are things like electricty, engines, radios, and computers but we never see any manufacturing plants and we never see guns (we've either seen or heard of fireworks, the explosive component of which makes up the key ingredient of gunpowder, also combustion engines run on the same principal as a firearm (a controlled explosion to force an object to move down a shaft) so you can't tell me no one can figure out how to make a controlled explosion throw a hunk of something solid), and yet you want to complain when I decide to un-kill a character or not kill someone wearing armor designed from the base up to resist ninja techniques with a technique being used by someone in the heat of battle with no idea just how much force it'll take to penetrate that armor even if its main function is disabled? Sure. Fine. Do it from a registered account so I can politely inform you just how much that irks me, formulate an intelligent response to address your complaint, and then point out just how silly you're being by being nitpicky over a bit of fanfiction. A piece of fanfiction that, need I remind you, exactly three people have any sort of say over whatsoever. For the most part I like what I have so far, my prereader likes it and at least tells me when he doesn't agree with something and gives reasons why along with suggestions for fixing anything that needs fixing, and I haven't seen any complaints out of the person who issued the challenge in the first place so I'm left to assume I'm doing a halfway decent job so far. So, from this day on, no more anonymous reviews. Again, sorry to those of you with good intentions for using the anon-review system. Again, if you wish to complain, that's fine but I'm not going to double the length of my chapters addressing individual complaints that someone's decided to leave anonymously so I can't reply directly, especially if I don't think it'll be worth the effort if your review leaves me to believe you won't bother to read that far next time. I hope this gets my point across and I need not waste more space--along with your time if you decide to read it and mine for writing it--in later chapters putting out a rant that only people who have bothered to stay with the story will see. End Rant.


	19. Fears Real and Imagined

**The Missing Hokage**

**19: Fears Real and Imagined**

* * *

Biting her lip, Naruko fretted. Oh, she was in trouble. _Big_ trouble. _'Shit,'_ the girl moaned internally. _'I think that was letting it go too far even with the prank in mind.'_ Looking around the small shop, she blew out an irritated huff of frustration. "Goddamnit," she whined, too distracted to even read her usual manga. As though in answer to her silent prayer for a solution, the bell over the door jingled and a Naruto-clone walked in. "It's about time," the girl growled.

"Huh?" Naruto asked, a confused look crossing his face. "Are you the only one here?"

Naruko shook her head. "No, there are a few more of you in the back. You're the first one I've seen that isn't busy. Take over for me, I need to go take care of something."

Scratching his head, Naruto shrugged. "Why not just make a clone?"

Naruko resisted the urge to smack the other blond, as that would pop the clone and she'd be left without relief. "Because, stupid, if Temari sees me spamming clones like _Naruto_ does then the prank is ruined," she answered. _'Might be ruined anyway. Arg! I really need to talk to Hinata.'_

The blond boy grinned, hopping over the counter and trading places with the female clone. "Well in that case, sure."

Naruko waved him off and made her way towards the exit. Nearly to the door, she paused as an idea occurred. "Hey," she said, turning around and eying the other blond. "Naruto was working on something I might have an idea for. Make a clone and pop it, and make sure it asks about the summoning thing."

"Temari's not here now," Naruto pointed out, but rolled his eyes and did as she asked anyway.

Naruko nodded in thanks and left the store, heading back to Team Hokage's home. Entering quietly, she looked around. Not finding anyone, she sighed in relief. _'Good, she's out with Isaribi for a while,'_ she thought, making her way into the kitchen for a quick snack. Halfway into her bowl of ramen, a new group of memories of experiences she hadn't had floated across the surface of her mind. Sorting through the clutter, she found what she was looking for and grinned. Slurping down the rest of her ramen, she made her way back towards she room Naruto usually used. Grabbing a pen and a notebook, she began to scribe the seals and notes given to Naruto by Tsunade and Anko from memory, along with the beginnings of the seal Naruto had in mind.

Idly chewing on the tip of the pen nearly an hour later, Naruko frowned down at the notes before her. _'This is what he was stuck on?'_ she wondered. Naruko shook her head. It was such a stupid thing to get stuck on that she was surprised the solution hadn't occurred to her original male counterpart yet. The boy wanted to create a seal that could summon a kage bunshin of someone. To do so, he had taken the three seals that he, Anko, and Tsunade thought it would take to perform the technique and was currently trying to tie them together somehow. What the boy wanted was a seal like the storage scroll seals he had been making lately—small, neat, and in a word: pretty. Naruko shook her head. _'Make it _work _first, make it look good later,'_ she mused.

Twirling her pen between her fingers, she brought it to the separate sheet of paper where she'd scrawled out the three separate seals in question and began connecting characters between them with lines. _'This goes here, this goes inside here, this goes inside this one... so that makes the summon seal dependent on the kage bunshin seal, which makes the kage bunshin seal dependent on the blood detection seal. So when it activates, it should read: summon, kage bunshin, from the being with these characteristics. Right. Now, I don't have any blood to test this...'_

A moment later, Naruko grinned as she regarded Tsunade's notes on what each part of the blood detection seal did. After a while of looking it over, she nodded to herself and pulled out a separate piece of paper. On this one, she transcribed all of the kage bunshin and summoning seals, connecting the two as she had with the original copy. Starting in on the detect-person-by-blood seal—of the sort used in storage scrolls locked to a specific person—she paused when she arrived at the section she wanted. _'Ok, if this looks for blood...'_ she thought, looking towards the character set that performed that function. Her eyes shifted to the side and landed on the summoning seal. What had originally been a seal with the kanji for 'Human' in the center as Anko had provided it had mutated into a seal with a simple variable designation in the middle. The variable part had a pair of lines linking it to the kage bunshin seal, which would force the seal to summon a kage bunshin instead of a human. The kage bunshin seal then linked to the blood detection seal...

Naruko smirked. _'Solve for 'X.''_ A moment later, she wrote in the same variable symbol from the summoning seal then drew a line from the variable to an open piece of paper, where she then looped the line into a circle similar to the ones she used for storage scrolls to designate the area the scroll was to seal. _'If I'm reading this right, it should be like a math problem,'_ she mused, shuddering briefly that _math_ of all the things Iruka had forced into her head was coming in handy. _'Summon X, where X is a kage bunshin, where the kage bunshin is created by detecting Y, where Y is... whatever I decide it is.'_ Looking over her work, Naruko nodded. Looking around, she spotted the futon Naruto—and she, recently—slept on. Walking over, she looked around the top of it before pinching a short, golden hair off its surface—an idle thought that she should wash that soon flitting across her mind. "Well, I'd rather not kill Hinata trying this, and I suppose even if Naruto knows what I know when this is over then it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make at this point," she murmured. Dropping the hair onto the detection circle, she channeled chakra into the seal.

For a moment, Naruko wondered if she had been wrong and it wouldn't be possible to chain seals together as she had. Her worry abated and shifted to another worry as a Naruto-clone popped into being across the desk from her. Naruto blinked, looking around. "What the hell?" he asked, noting that he seemed to be in his room back at Team Hokage's base of operations. The Naruto in question was dressed in the heavy winter gear that they had convinced Dane to make for the group—something none of the local clones were wearing since that set of the material was simply too hot, even in the relatively cool fall air.

"Do you know how you got here?" Naruko asked, waiting.

Naruto shook his head. "Nope. Am I me or a clone?"

"Clone," the girl answered. _'Awesome. He has no clue _and _it works. I'm the best!'_ After a moment, she waved towards the seal diagram she'd drawn. "Fixed your problem. It works fine, obviously. You were just too worried about how to make the seals work together when written as one seal as opposed to three separate connected seals to figure out how to make it work in the first place."

Looking over the drawings, Naruto rolled his eyes. "Shit," he groaned, bringing his palm up to smack his forehead in annoyance. The force of the blow was enough to disperse him, scattering the memory to all of the clones plus the original.

Brushing the hair away from the detection circle, Naruko reapplied chakra to the seal. When nothing happened, she sighed in relief. Standing, she made her way into Hinata's bedroom. A quick search of the futon provided a lavender colored hair and Naruko padded back into her own room, locking the door behind her should Temari or Isaribi return before she was finished and not bother to knock. Placing the hair into the circle, she activated the seal. She made a mental note to experiment with making a seal to summon the actual person in question later. A moment later, a Hinata-clone popped into existence across from her. Blinking in confusion, Hinata looked around before focusing on Naruko. "Naruko-chan?" she asked getting a nod. "Why am I in Otafuku Gai? I was just on the ship back with Naruto-kun and the others..." Seeing a sheepish, guilty look cross the blonde's face, Hinata asked, "What's wrong?"

"Hinata-chan!" the blonde cried, latching onto the smaller girl for all she was worth, though careful not to disperse either of them.

Several confusing minutes of Naruko mumbling apologies into her breasts later, Hinata sighed as she stopped stroking the other girl's hair and pulled back enough to look at the familiar whisker-marked face. "Perhaps you should start from the beginning?"

Sniffing, Naruko quickly recomposed herself and nodded. "Right, sorry. Heh," the girl chuckled briefly, rubbing the back of her head. "It started a day or so after you left. Temari showed up in Dane's store, looking for Naruto. Only she found me."

Hinata nodded. "Naruto-kun told us about that," she said, smiling as she remembered the prank on Temari.

Naruko nodded. "What he didn't tell you is that I took it a step further."

"Oh?"

The blonde nodded again. "I think Temari was trying to see if I was 'real' or just a clone under a henge, either way she dragged me into the bath with her. And then I decided that it would be pretty much the greatest prank I've ever pulled if I pulled one over on... _myself_, I suppose. Naruto doesn't know any of what I've been doing since she got here, since I haven't dispersed."

Hearing that, Hinata quickly covered her mouth as a giggle escaped her lips. "I see," she managed to get out around her laughter. Getting herself under control quickly, she asked, "Then what's the problem?"

Naruko sighed, steeling herself for the smaller girl's response. "Yesterday..."

Naruko was startled awake by the sound of a fist beating against her door. "Wake up, blondie. It's your turn to make breakfast," Temari's voice called through the thin door.

The girl in question yawned, stretching widely before crawling out of bed clad in only a pair of Naruto's boxers and an orange and black spiral tee-shirt she'd based the one she'd created with the henge off of. Idly scratching her side, she slid the door open to glare at Temari—who was dressed in just about as much. "Lazy," she admonished, turning towards the stairs for the kitchen as the taller blonde followed.

After a quick breakfast, the pair left to go find something to do as Temari was bored and Isaribi had to work. It was late into the night when the pair of blondes stumbled back home, clinging to each other and giggling. They'd found a small karaoke bar that Naruko hadn't known about and had spent most of the afternoon in a private booth entertaining themselves with song and dance over food and drink. Perhaps there had been a little too much of that last one, as both were somewhat unsteady on their feet. Sliding the front door open, they toed their sandals off and padded their way in quietly, knowing Isaribi would be asleep by then.

Temari yawned. "I think I'm going to take a bath. You coming?"

Sniffing the air, Naruko's face crinkled up in mock disgust. "Yeah, you need one. You reek," she teased. Shrugging, she added, "Sure. I probably need one too. Got to wash the alcohol smell off," she mused. The stuff almost poured off the other blond, and she knew she smelled pretty heavily of it herself. Then again, her nose was pretty sensitive, so maybe it wasn't quite as bad as it seemed. Temari made her way into the kitchen and came back with a small bottle of sweet sake before heading towards the bath. Naruko shook her head. "Haven't you had enough?"

Temari rolled her eyes. "Nope," she answered bluntly, sliding the door to the bath open and quickly disrobing.

"Lush," Naruko snorted, following the older blond and joining her in the shower.

As the pair finished rinsing the soap off Temari picked up her bottle and cup, along with a towel, and made her way towards the bath. Naruko was only mildly surprised when Temari spread the towel out and lay face down on it, turning her head to regard the other blonde. "Do me," she demanded.

Naruko rolled her eyes. The Suna kunoichi had only actually gotten up the nerve to ask for Naruko to do so once before, shortly after the gambling incident. "Someone's pushy," the girl teased before settling on her knees beside the older blonde. She really didn't mind doing it anyway, since it was nice practice for doing the same to Hinata. And besides, Temari wasn't exactly hard on the eyes either—and Naruko had a very nice view of the sides of Temari's breasts, her firm rear, and her long, _long_ legs.

Any comment Temari may have made was cut off when the younger blonde's long fingers dug into her back and started working their magic. _'Oh damn, a girl could _so _get used to this,'_ she thought idly, a soft moan working its way out of her mouth. _'Too bad I can't get it more often.'_

Above and behind the girl, Naruko yawned briefly as she worked the older girl's muscles into a quivering mass of girly-bliss. _'It's a little different, doing this as a girl,'_ she mused. _'Naruto's fingers are slightly shorter than mine. A bit thicker too.'_ Digging her thumb into a particularly stubborn knot in one of the muscles of Temari's back, she smirked when the older girl choked off a squeal. _'She's a lot more vocal than Hinata-chan. Then again, I think Hinata-chan was trying to be quiet so she wouldn't wake anyone.'_ After a moment, her mind added, _'Both are way more fun than Anko though. She hardly reacts at all. It's like she's been doing this for years and I just don't match up to whoever did it for her last,'_ she thought, mildly annoyed that she had yet to get a decent reaction out of the older kunoichi. That thought in mind, she felt her mind wander for a moment before focusing on a similar experience—the first time they had tried medical jutsu, actually. Naruko blinked, comparing the two reactions. _'Hinata-chan nearly passed out and even Shizu-neechan was blushing. Maybe...'_ A foxy smirk crossed her face as Naruko did what every Naruto did best—improvised.

"Oh _gods_," Temari whimpered as _something_ spread out from where the younger blonde's hands touched her bare flesh, causing her toes to curl briefly. She quickly clamped her jaws closed tightly and started a controlled breathing exercise through her nose. _'Don't stop. Whatever the hell it is you're doing, please don't stop,'_ she silently begged.

_'Not quite what I was going for,'_ the clone thought, her eyes narrowing as she concentrated on the thin sheen of dark green chakra emanating from her fingertips. Naruto's—and thus her own—control had improved to the point where she wasn't simply flooding her target with chakra whenever she attempted simple diagnostic jutsus. Practicing the jutsu with Shizune and Hinata had allowed her to figure out—through various mistakes—that she could simply produce the medical chakra for the technique without receiving the input from the other person that the technique was supposed to gather. Before now, she'd never had any reason to duplicate that particular mistake as not being able to detect or really do much of anything with the chakra had seemed pretty useless at the time. Now, however, she may have just found a use for it. The tip of her tongue idly flicking out to wet her lips, Naruko concentrated on the blonde beneath her. _'I wonder if she'll pass out like Hinata-chan,'_ she idly mused, the familiar foxy smirk widening on her lips.

Despite her best efforts, Temari was having a very difficult time controlling herself. Fear of the younger girl stopping if she knew just what sort of effect whatever it was she was doing was having on her kept Temari's mouth clamped firmly shut. A few moments later, her entire body tensed for a moment before relaxing into a puddle of quivering girly-flesh. Temari turned her head to the side facing away from the younger blonde as a satisfied smile flitted across her face, her breathing quickly evening out. _'I think this one's a keeper,'_ the girl mused. She'd never been in a relationship with someone before—mainly due to the risks involved in being anywhere near Gaara, and that extended to his relatives. Now though? She sighed, considering the blonde above her. Naruko was nice—sweet really, in a naively-innocent sort of way. She was just as spontaneous and unpredictable as the other Uzumaki and she was genuinely fun to be with. And best of all, just like her brother, Naruko seemed to hold no fear of Temari's own little brother.

As the younger blonde continued idly working her hands over Temari's thighs and calves, the older blonde added another mark in the younger girl's favor: she was attentive and apparently just as affectionate with her friends as the male Uzumaki was—if not more so. Sitting up, Temari sighed in annoyance as the foxy girl was forced stop stop paying attention to her. She slipped quickly into the warm bath and sighed in bliss this time as the water enveloped her. "This is nice," she murmured quietly.

Naruko snickered. "So, how'd I do?" she asked, genuinely wanting to know. She'd felt Temari tense suddenly, but had no real idea as to why. Maybe she'd done something wrong?

Fumbling around behind her, Temari wrapped her hands around the bottle of sweet sake and the cup with it that the other blonde had been kind enough to hand her. "Hmm," she murmured. A moment later, she grinned. "You pass," she said evasively, pouring herself a drink and placing the bottle back on the ledge of the bath.

Naruko slid into the bath and crossed over to the other side to sit back against the wall facing Temari. "I pass?" she asked, getting a nod. "That's a little vague," she grumbled. "How about on a scale of one to ten?"

Temari hid her smirk behind a sip. _'Eleven,'_ she mused, though it wouldn't do to inflate the other girl's ego any. "I would have to say..." she started, waiting. Seeing the blonde's hopeful look, she pounced. "Four."

Naruko spluttered, her foot slipping as she fell face-first into the bath. A moment later, she surfaced and stood, glaring at Temari as she pointed towards the older blonde. "A four? Only a FOUR?!" Seeing Temari nod, a determined look crossed her face that Temari felt eerily echoed the one she had seen on the younger blonde's brother before. "Oh, I'll show you," the girl grumbled, sitting back down and drawing a faint frown of disappointment from Temari. She had been enjoying the free show, after all. "Next time, I'll have you begging for more."

One thin blonde eyebrow arched towards Temari's hairline. _''Next time?' Score!'_ she internally cheered. Aloud, she snorted. "In your dreams."

Across from Temari, Naruko went about pulling water from her now-soaked hair. When she was done, she tossed it negligently behind her. After a moment of thought, she smirked. "Care to make a wager on it?"

Downing the last of her drink, Temari refilled it, giving herself time to ponder the question. "What do you get if you win?"

The younger blonde's smirk widened to the point of causing her eyes to partially close to accommodate it. "The satisfaction of hearing you beg."

"And what do I get if I win?"

Naruko shrugged, the motion drawing Temari's eyes to her chest like a magnet. "I don't know. What do you want?"

Several thoughts immediately came to mind. A _very_ perverted leer crossed Temari's lips as she questioned, "How about I get to name my prize after I've won?"

"You won't though," Naruko grinned. "So I suppose that's fine."

Temari nodded and the pair lapsed into an amicable silence as they simply sat and enjoyed each other's company and the water they were soaking in. _'From the way they talk, the Hyuuga—ex-Hyuuga, rather—is already showing signs of interest in Naruto,'_ she mused, turning her mind towards the pair of blonds. From what she'd seen of the boy, Naruto was not hard on the eyes at all—at least when he wasn't wearing insanely large amounts of orange. And he would only get better looking as he matured. A quiet sigh of contentment drew her attention back to the blonde across the bath from her. Temari had never really given much thought as to whether she preferred boys over girls for company. Really, she was so starved for affection—hell, for human contact in general, since her brother scared off pretty much everyone indiscriminately—that at this point she wouldn't care either way as to the person's sex, so long as they were willing to risk death-by-Gaara to be with her.

And again, she reminded herself that the blonds in question held absolutely no fear for her brother—something every person in Suna had been perfectly justified in doing for the last several years. Temari couldn't fault them for distancing themselves from herself and Kankuro in addition to Gaara. After all, they were the only ones he seemed to tolerate most of the time and where one was, there was always the possibility that Gaara would be nearby or would show up. Sure, it wasn't so bad in recent months, but Temari didn't have any idea how long her brother's more recent calm demeanor would last before he lashed out again.

_'I think... maybe I want to try, just this once,'_ she mused, draining the last of her sweet sake straight from the bottle. Alcohol oiled gears turned and slipped in her mind before clicking into place. Temari smiled, slipping across the bath towards the other blonde.

Sensing movement, Naruko's eyes cracked open. They opened the rest of the way when she caught sight of the almost predatory look on Temari's face. "Uh... Temari-chan?" she asked, a nervous flutter starting to build in her stomach as her fight-or-flight instincts reared their fox-shaped head. Even if she did not consciously understand what the other girl was doing, a deeper, instinctual part of her realized that she had suddenly become prey. "What are you doing?"

One of Temari's arms had put itself between Naruko and the open water of the bath, leaving the corner of the bath on the other blonde's left do the work of cutting off that escape route while her own body blocked the girl's path forward. "Shh," she smirked, her right hand reaching up to cup the slightly smaller girl's jaw. "You're babbling," she breathed quietly.

Any further protests on Naruko's part were cut off as Temari darted forward, the Suna kunoichi's lips pressing to her own. Her eyes widened in shock as something slipped past her lips and the realization that it was Temari's tongue set in. _'Sweet sake,'_ the thought flickered across her mind as her eyes closed and she responded unconsciously.

Temari's smirk widened as she tasted the other blonde. Pulling back slightly and tugging Naruko's lip back with her teeth in the process, she released the other girl's bottom lip to speak. "I've never done something like this before," she admitted quietly. After a moment of hesitation, she forced herself to put voice to the feelings she'd acknowledged. "I like you."

Naruko's eyes widened. _'Too far! Way too far now,'_ she panicked. "I.. uh—um," biting her lip, she focused chakra and performed a quick kawarimi with a bar of bath soap. "SorryIhavetogobye!" she squeaked out all at once, grabbing her towel and making a quick dash out the door, not even bothering to wrap the towel around herself.

Temari huffed in frustration. "Great Temari. The one time you actually want to try, you've managed to fuck things up."

Blinking, Hinata regarded the blonde girl before her as she finished her story. "And that was last night. I don't know what to do. And I really, _really_ didn't mean to—"

Hinata cut the taller blonde off with a quick kiss, silencing her rambling. Pulling back, she smiled. "I don't mind."

"You.. wha— huh?!"

Blushing, Hinata did something she hadn't done in what felt like ages—she poked her index fingers together in embarrassment and looked away. "_I don't mind,_" she repeated quietly. Looking up, she saw that the blonde girl still didn't get what she was trying to impart. She gave up on it for the moment, deciding to focus more on the other issues at hand. "Why don't you show me exactly what you did?"

"What do you mean?" the blonde asked, confused. Having pulled off her jacket shortly into Naruko's retelling of things, Hinata blushed and turned away from the blonde before pulling her long-sleeved shirt off and leaving her clad in only a sports-bra and pants. She stretched out on the floor and crossed her arms to provide a pillow for her head. "Oh!" Naruko nodded, seeing the other girl's actions as an invitation. Forming the seals for her bastardized jutsu, she started running medical-chakra-covered hands across the ex-Hyuuga's back.

Ten minutes and a far more vocal response than Temari had given later, Hinata attempted to keep from drooling as she recovered. _'Eleven!'_ the girl concluded silently, a large grin spreading across her face. _'And she didn't even touch me anywhere naughty,'_ she mused, the desire to remedy that rearing its head. Hinata pushed it back down for the moment, deciding it could wait. "I see," she breathed out, sitting up slowly and pulling her shirt back on. After a moment of thought, she said, "I think I will explain everything to Temari-san." Seeing the blonde's worried look, she smiled. "Don't worry. I believe I can do so without ruining your fun, Naruko-chan."

"Really?" the blonde asked. Hinata nodded. "You'd do that for me?"

"Of course."

Naruko smiled, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment. "You really aren't mad at me or anything?"

Hinata shook her head. "It wasn't your fault," she answered. Well, it _was_ her fault in a way, but Temari had decided her own course of action so they were both equally responsible. "As long as you love me, I don't mind," she started but was unable to finish the thought. _'Naruto-kun has been so isolated and deprived of love for his entire life that it feels like it would be a crime to deny him love now, when someone seems willing to offer it. And it just proves that I was right all along that Naruto-kun _is _worthy of being loved.'_

"I think I can help you find Temari, if you want," Naruko supplied, relieved beyond belief. If she had ruined her—ruined Naruto's—chance with Hinata because of a silly prank, she didn't want to think about just how horrible that would make the original Naruto feel. Now that she knew she had Hinata's support and apparent approval, she felt so much better.

Hinata shook her head. "No, I can find her Naruko-chan. I believe it's a talk that would go over best if you weren't there. I'm sorry."

"No, it's ok! Really," the blonde shook her head quickly, sending her pigtails flying and causing Hinata to giggle as one of them slapped into the side of her face.

"We should be back in a few days but we should get into port some time tomorrow," Hinata informed the blonde, though she assumed Naruko already knew it wouldn't hurt to tell her. Leaning down, she planted a quick kiss on the still-sitting blonde's lips. "Try not to get into too much trouble until then, Naruko-chan," the girl giggled, leaving the blonde alone to her thoughts while she went to find Temari. A Byakugan aided search of the town ended her hunt quickly as she found the older blonde sitting on a park bench—apparently deep in thought. Dropping down out of the trees some distance away, she approached the bench slowly—making sure to give the other kunoichi plenty of time to register her presence and dismiss her as an immediate threat. "May I sit?"

Looking up, Temari gave the girl a once over. Short, dark hair, pale lavender eyes, curvy in all the right places, and a Jiei hitai-ate hung around her neck... "Sure," Temari allowed, scooting to the side to make more room for the smaller girl. "You must be Hinata-san."

The ex-Hyuuga nodded. "I am. Naruko-chan asked me to speak with you."

Temari's eyebrows raised slightly as her interest was piqued. "Tsunade's back?"

"No," Hinata denied. Smiling, she answered. "Naruko-chan was upset, so she brought me here."

Temari narrowed her eyes in confusion. "She summoned you?"

"Something like that," Hinata allowed. "Naruko-chan is very creative when she feels the need to be." Seeing Temari shrug, Hinata said, "You confused her."

"Understatement of the year," Temari ground out. "I didn't mean to—"

Hinata cut her off with a wave of her hand. "Naruko-chan is fine now," she dismissed the other girl's worries. "What you need to understand is that she doesn't quite know how to interact with other people. She has been isolated most of her life and, as a result, is very affectionate towards anyone she considers a friend—she also easily latches on to any similar sentiment from others." Hinata understood exactly what sort of difficulties Naruto/Naruko was having as she had many of the same problems herself.

Temari looked skeptical. "She doesn't hate me for trying to take advantage of her?"

"She doesn't see it that way," Hinata denied. "Nor do I. You simply acted on your feelings. That is something I can understand very well," the girl smiled. Seeing the doubt still on the older girl's face, she added, "I believe Naruko-chan would be open to the idea. If not now, then in time."

"Thanks," Temari murmured, blushing faintly. _'So she really _is _that naive.'_

Seeing the older girl seemed to be coming out of her funk, a grin crossed her face that Temari instantly recognized—after all, it was perfectly at home on the faces of the pair of Uzumakis. "I wouldn't mind sharing," she suggested innocently.

"S-sharing?!" Temari choked out. "What?"

Hinata rolled her eyes. "Sunagakure did not give kunoichi-specific classes?"

"Well yeah, they did, but..."

"Then you know as well as I do that most shinobi relationships are... atypical by civilian standards, to put it mildly," Hinata interrupted firmly. In a society where young adults—you couldn't call them children, once they'd become ninja—were expected to fight, kill, and occasionally die for Village, Kage, and Lord certain concessions had to be made. And in the same society where young kunoichi were expected to infiltrate other villages using the oldest and most effective method—selling their bodies, either by marriage or even directly, as there was simply too much information flowing into brothels _not_ to have someone on the inside—relationships between shinobi were very different from what civilians would consider the norm. The kunoichi of Team Hokage, however, had collectively decided that none of them would ever be forced into such a situation for any reason.

"But you and Naruto..." Temari spoke, breaking off the younger girl's train of thought.

Hinata smiled. "I like both," she answered simply.

"Both?"

"Mhmm," Hinata nodded, her smile still mischievous. "I always have."

Thinking the situation over, Temari made the mistake of letting her mouth run out in front of her brain again. "Are you sure you're not just a slut?" she murmured. She immediately regretted her words when she felt killing intent build to a level that she'd never felt from another female—or nearly anyone save for her brother, really. Almost as soon as it manifested, it was gone.

"I am sure," Hinata answered, her tone as neutral as she could make it.

"I'm sorry," Temari apologized quietly. "I didn't mean that."

When she felt calm enough to speak without saying something she would regret, Hinata continued. "Naruto-kun is the only man I will ever—_can_ ever love. He is more important to me than you can possibly imagine," she finished quietly.

"And Naruko?"

Hinata shrugged, smiling. "Naruko-chan is... special. She means just as much to me as Naruto-kun does."

Temari nodded. The pair went silent as Temari contemplated the other girl's words and Hinata gave her the time she would need to think the issue over. Finally, she asked, "So... share?"

The dark hared girl nodded. "On one condition," she said. Seeing Temari's questioning look, she said, "I want to be Naruko-chan's first. Do not take that from me." After all, taking that from Naruko would be the same as taking it from Naruto. Hinata wanted that experience for herself and would be _very_ displeased were someone to steal it from her.

Temari caught her mouth just before it could drop open. "I thought you'd be more interested in her brother."

"I—"

The Suna kunoichi waved the younger girl's words off. "'You like both.' I get it." After a moment, a thought entered her mind and she asked curiously, "What about Naruto?"

Hinata shrugged. "That would depend on you and your feelings for him."

"I don't know," the Suna kunoichi answered honestly. "He's nice, sure. Not nearly as mouthy as he used to be, which is a real plus. I just don't know him well enough to say if I would even like him as anything more than a friend."

Temari watched as a small, strange smile lit Hinata's features. "You know Naruto-kun much better than you think," she said evasively.

"I've been wondering," Temari said, deciding to save the other girl's words for review later. "Which one of them is older? And are they really twins?"

"Naruto-kun is older," Hinata answered truthfully. After all, he had only invented the oiroke henge within the last year. "As for your second question..." she trailed off, waiting. Seeing the questioning look on Temari's face, she said, "Something like that."

"Arg!" the Suna kunoichi growled. "Will I ever get a straight answer out of any of you?" she grumbled.

"Possibly," Hinata allowed around a giggle.

Sighing, Temari moved back to the previous topic. "So you're serious about this?" she asked. Seeing the younger girl nod, she gnawed her bottom lip in thought for a moment. "How would that work? Would we trade nights or arrange some kind of schedule?"

"Kage Bunshin," Hinata answered with a shrug.

Temari rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, they're only clones. It's not the same thing."

Smiling that strange smile again, Hinata said, "We can work something out later." The smaller girl yawned. "I think it's just about time for me to go. You should go home. Naruko-chan is waiting." She paused for a moment before continuing, "Just remember our agreement."

Temari nodded. "Sure," she agreed. After a moment, she added quietly, "And thanks."

"You're welcome," the smaller girl grinned before disappearing in a small cloud of chakra and smoke.

Blinking, Temari regarded the place where Hinata had sat only a moment ago. "I was talking to a clone the entire time?" she wondered. Sure, she'd known the Narutos running around town were all clones—she'd even held a conversation with them on occasion. But to be completely unable to tell the difference without dispelling the clone... Temari stood, beginning to make her way towards Team Hokage's home. Maybe she would take the smaller girl up on her idea after all...

* * *

Naruto yawned, stretching out in his sleeping bag beside Hinata, who was curled up against his right side. Thankfully, none of the other girls had decided to join them the night before. Not that he minded—unless it was Anko, though he tolerated her so long as she didn't get too frisky—he was just in the mood to spend time with Hinata alone for once. Cracking his eyes open, he regarded the smaller girl, a small smile working its way onto his face. Before they had finally gone to bed last night, Hinata had broken down into a fit of giggles over something. When questioned, she simply shook her head and laughed harder. _'Probably something to do with the clone,'_ Naruto mused, thinking back to the memory of appearing in Otafuku Gai with a Naruko-clone.

As he focused on that event, he frowned slightly. _'I don't have any memories of what's going on from that perspective.'_ After a moment, he shrugged it off. _'Maybe she just hasn't dispersed. It would make sense, since they've still got Temari confused.'_ Giving up on that line of thought, he focused on what he had learned about the kage bunshin summoning seal. The clone's idea worked, which was a start. He still wanted to find a way to compress the seals and merge them so that they could take up less space and wouldn't be easily identifiable as what they were.

As he thought over the summoning seal, an idea occurred—more than one actually. Firstly, if he rewrote the seal to summon the person, they would have a quick method of getting back to Otafuku Gai or wherever he decided to put one of those seals. He would need a way to make it so that not just anyone could use the seal though, otherwise someone could simply copy the seals or otherwise set up some kind of trap or ambush. Being able to be summoned against one's will would not be good. The second idea was to create a seal to designate a thing to be summoned—specifically, being able to summon Raijin and the rest of his gear to him if he were captured again could prove invaluable.

And thinking of which, Naruto frowned. Neither Tsunade nor Anko had been pleased with his improvised plan for getting rid of Dotou. He had thought, at the time, that allowing his real body to be 'captured' would be an ideal way of allowing him to figure out just what it was the guy was after. He seemed like the type of bad guy to enjoy long-winded speeches and making his enemies suffer as opposed to killing them right off. In hindsight, it hadn't been his brightest idea to date. There were so many things that could have gone wrong but didn't—mostly due entirely to luck on his part. Dotou could have killed Yukie the moment he found out she didn't have the crystal. Dotou's ninja could have killed him when he showed up. Dotou could have seen right through Yukie's own hastily made ruse and just snapped her neck. That thought caused the blond to frown at the possibility.

Then again, there were countless things he could have done better to end it all. He could have easily pulled Yukie to the side instead of letting the fat guy grab her. He could have snagged Yukie and fled the blimp while letting his clones tear it to shreds with a few dozen Daitoppas let off inside and see just how well that armor would stand up to a fall from that heigth—then again, both Dotou and the kunoichi on their team had wings, and the leader guy had survived Tsunade's own strength technique. Not to mention the fat guy surviving his rasengan—though that one wasn't that much of a surprise. It was a mistake on his part not to check and make sure the guy was dead, for sure, but at the time how the hell was he supposed to know their armor was more than just a chakra shield, that it was built from the ground up to resist chakra techniques. And while using a Kyuubi-clone to draw Dotou's attention away from a third clone spinning up a rasengan behind him, not to mention the original Naruto taking up a position between Dotou and Yukie in case he decided to switch targets to her, wasn't necessarily a bad idea—after all, it had worked—that too could have just as easily failed. It helped that Dotou hadn't noticed Naruto and the third clone going invisible since he was using that huge freaking tornado jutsu—something that was sorely tempting Naruto to turn back around to Snow Country for to see if he could find a jutsu scroll for it or something.

Anko's words to him when she'd pulled him aside from the group before they boarded the ship bound for Fire Country had stung the worst, though. _"All the training in the world isn't going to help if you go off and act like a damn Genin fresh out of the academy. Things worked out this time, but you probably won't get that lucky next time. Ninety nine percent of the enemies you're going to come across aren't going to give two shits one way or another that you're younger than them, less experienced than them, or anything else that means you can't fight on the same level as them. In fact, for nearly all of them that's an open invitation to stick a kunai in you. _They will kill you_, then they will move on to kill the rest of us. They will not hesitate, they will not feel the least bit of remorse over it. I didn't think I'd actually have to spell it out for you, but you've got to stop acting like a kid. Don't dick around taunting your opponents, don't wait until the very last minute to use some technique you've been hiding up your sleeve for a desperate situation, and damn sure don't miss an opportunity to finish off your enemy if he's distracted. It's one of the rules of ninja combat you're going to have to get through that thick blond head of yours: there is _no such thing_ as a fair fight."_

Maybe it was being treated like some dumb kid fresh out of the academy, or maybe it was having the possibility of his friends—who he was quickly coming to realize were becoming more of a family than just friends—dying because he made a simple mistake finally rammed home, it could even have just been the look on the older kunoichi's face and the tone of her voice when she'd told him that—it hadn't even had her usual annoyance or anger in it, just disappointment and a little worry. Either way, it really... kind of hurt. Sighing quietly, Naruto carefully left his sleeping bag and padded towards the head. Anko was right—it was time to grow up and stop acting like a kid on missions. The blond smiled as he realized that thankfully that didn't apply to down time, which meant he could still screw around and have as much fun as he wanted when they were 'off duty' so to speak. He never thought to question why it was that Anko had been the one to bring that up as opposed to Tsunade, or why she had even bothered to pull him aside to speak privately as opposed to just ripping him a new one in front of everyone. If he had, he might have been able to reason out that she had insisted on doing so because she was genuinely worried that he could wind up getting himself or someone else killed.

Hinata woke upon feeling Naruto leave the sleeping bag, padding his way across the room and out towards the head. They were on a different ship this time, thankfully this one was screw-driven as well as wind powered. Despite being on a slightly larger ship, this time not overcrowded by the cast and crew for Yukie's movie, Team Hokage had decided to bunk in the same room again. Silently activating her Byakugan, Hinata observed her sleeping teammates. Well, mostly sleeping. Upon feeling the release of chakra, Anko turned onto her side and focused her eyes on Hinata for a moment before closing them again. Hinata smiled, thinking back to her discussion with Naruko and Temari the previous day. _'I hope she forgives Naruto-kun, once she learns the truth,'_ the girl mused.

Hinata's thoughts turned towards the other members of their team. Her eyes settled on Shizune. _'With just a little push in the right direction, Shizune-senpai will be easy to convince,'_ she thought, her gaze sliding off of Shizune back to Anko. _'Anko-chan's reaction is harder to judge. If I were to simply suggest it myself, she would scoff and reject the idea. However, with Temari and Shizune-chan going along Anko would be far more likely to simply jump in.'_ Her eyes settled on the only female member of the group wearing a Konoha hitai-ate.

Scrutinizing the bun-haired girl, Hinata sighed and deactivated her Byakugan as she saw Naruto approaching the room through the wall. _'Tenten-chan seems to be attempting to hold herself off from letting herself feel anything very strongly for Naruto-kun. It will take far more effort than the others to bring her around, though it does seem possible.'_

"You're awake?" Naruto asked as Hinata wrapped her arms around him when he slipped back into the sleeping bag. He felt her nod against his chest and grinned. After a moment, he added, "It's kind of quiet around here without _Hime-chan_ around."

"You miss her?" Hinata asked, smiling. Of course he did. They were very much alike, after all.

Naruto shrugged. "Maybe a little." A foxy smirk crept onto his face. "Driving her up a wall was really fun."

"Poor Yukie-san," Hinata sighed, shaking her head in mock sympathy. "Tsunade-sama plans to make a return trip, you know? She and Koyuki-hime made some sort of business deal."

"Why didn't I hear about this?" the boy asked in confusion.

Hinata rolled her eyes. "You were too busy playing with your new toy."

"Oh, right," the boy agreed. "So, what do you want to do today?"

Thinking it over, the smaller girl smiled and answered, "Absolutely nothing."

"Nothing?" the boy asked, raising an eyebrow. Feeling Hinata nod against him, he asked, "What about food?"

"Kage Bunshin," she answered, smiling.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Ok, but we should at least study." It was odd, hearing that coming from his own mouth. Nearly a year ago he'd have sooner skipped class than actually tried to study or even sit still with a book for more than five minutes at a time.

"Kage Bunshin."

Snickering, the boy asked, "Bathroom breaks?"

"Hmm," the girl hummed. "I suppose."

"So you plan to just waste the day away lying in bed?" the blond asked.

Hinata nodded. "With you," she amended.

"Really?" the boy asked, foxy smirk adorning his features again. "And what if I do this?" Bringing his hands up, he started tickling her sides. The dark haired girl squealed, attempting to roll away only for the boy to follow. They rolled into Shizune, who jerked awake and pushed them off, sending them rolling in the other direction. Several light jyuuken strikes tapped the boy's forearms in an attempt to stop him but as she didn't have her bloodline active and was shrieking with laughter at the time, Hinata missed the vast majority of her targets. They rolled again, this time into Anko.

Sitting up, the special-jonin regarded the pair below her—Naruto still ticking Hinata until she was nearly blue in the face and the girl in question trying, unsuccessfully, to fend him off with jyuuken. "If you wanted to play, you could have just asked," Anko leered, causing both to pause.

A moment later, Hinata squeaked when Naruto resumed tickling her. Wiggling her way out from under the blond, she attempted to make a break for it. Halfway across the room, she was intercepted by Tenten, the bun-haired girl's foot shooting out and tripping the smaller girl to fall into her sleeping bag. "This is for waking me up!" she giggled, renewing the assault on Hinata that Naruto had started.

The blond in question had found himself pinned by Anko and Shizune and was undergoing much the same treatment. "Stop!" the boy gasped around his laughter. "I give!" Across the room, Hinata echoed his plea.

By some unspoken agreement, the three older kunoichi paused to regard each other. "Should we stop?" Shizune asked, a small grin working its way across her face.

"I dunno..." Tenten mused. "They did ruin a perfectly good dream."

Anko nodded. "Best to teach them the error of their ways now," she grinned. Smirking down at Naruto, she said, "Sorry, kiddo. This's for your own good." The trio of kunoichi resumed their assault.

On the only side of the room with no activity, Tsunade sat up in bed and regarded the action. She turned to regard the only other member of their group that wasn't engaged in either screaming in laughter or actively causing it. "Why can't I ever just get a day to sleep in?" she complained.

Haku smiled, turning his attention back to the group. "And miss the fun?"

Tsunade snorted, flopping back into bed. "Fun needs to learn to wait until a decent hour. After noon, preferably," she grumbled, though a smile adorned her lips.

Night had just set when their ship made port in Fire Country. Walking off the ship, Anko stretched her arms above her head. Spotting a familiar flashing neon sign, she grinned. "Just what I needed. I'll catch up to you guys later," she called, heading off towards a bar she'd last visited when first hunting Team Hokage down.

Licking her lips at the idea of finally getting some down time and something to drink, Tsunade quickly followed and caught up to the special-jonin. Sending the younger group an apologetic look, Shizune sighed as she hugged Tonton to her chest. "I should go make sure those two don't get into too much trouble. Would you mind going ahead and reserving a hotel room for us?"

"It's no problem," Naruto shrugged, waving the older kunoichi off. "You should try to enjoy yourself too, Shizu-neechan."

Tsunade's first apprentice rolled her eyes at either the words of the nickname before following after her mentor. "With those two? No, someone needs to be sober enough to make sure the building is still standing in the morning."

"So, what do you guys want to do?" Tenten asked of the other three gathered shinobi.

"We should go ahead and reserve our rooms before we make any decisions on how to spend the rest of the night," Haku supplied, deciding it would be up to him to be the voice of reason seeing as Naruto looked antsy for any kind of action, Tenten seemed just as eager, and Hinata would gladly follow along behind the blond.

Hinata nodded in agreement as the group set out in search of a decent hotel. After a moment of walking, a small grin tugged at her lips before she eyed Naruto. "Naruto-kun?" she asked. Seeing she had his attention, she continued, "Have you ever tried karaoke?"

Naruto shook his head, not knowing that at least one of him had before. "Nope. What is it?"

Tenten blinked, shooting a look at Hinata from across Naruto. Seeing the other girl's look, Tenten raised an eyebrow. "I guess we know what we're doing tonight then."

Later in the night, Shizune lead Anko and Tsunade out of the bar, rolling her eyes at the pair. "You should really learn to drink in moderation," she admonished. After a few moments of walking, the kage bunshin Shizune had sent ahead to find the hotel the younger members of the group were supposed to have reserved dispersed. "This way," she murmured, leading the pair onward.

Nearly twenty minutes later, Shizune sighed in relief as she dropped Anko and flopped down onto the bed beside the other kunoichi. Seeing Tsunade head into the bathroom, she yawned as she began pulling off Anko's outer layers of clothes, followed by her own. "Tsunade-sama, remember to lock the door," she reminded the older blonde as she curled up beside Anko and closed her eyes.

Yawning herself, Tsunade nodded at Shizune's words as she finished up in the bathroom. Seeing her first apprentice already attempting to drift off beside Anko, the Sannin rolled her eyes before making her way over to the tap and pouring a glass of water. She quickly spat the water out and made a face, making a mental note not to drink from the local tap-water. She grumbled as she opened the hotel door and closed it quietly behind herself, heading towards where she'd seen a vending machine at the end of the hall when they'd come in. The bottled water thumped down into the bottom of the machine and Tsunade quickly grabbed it, uncapping it and downing half its contents in a single pull.

"Tsunade-hime," a calm voice called from down the corridor. Tsunade's eyes slid off to her left before immediately hitting the floor just before the voice calmly stated, "Tsukiyomi."

"Itachi," Tsunade greeted, dropping her _water. 'Fuck, he's come for Naruto. I won't let you have him!' _All signs of inebriation dropped from the Sannin as she dashed forward towards the missing-nin. The Uchiha had made a grave error, challenging the Sannin in such a close-quarters combat setting. Tsunade didn't bother with weapons or jutsu, dodging a quick katon jutsu thrown by Itachi even as she closed to close-combat range where jutsu would be nigh-impossible.

She knew enough about the Sharingan to know that it could read the flow of chakra and predict an opponent's movements before they made them. She also knew of its weaknesses—if the user wasn't fast enough to dodge or block an attack the advantage of knowing it was coming was rendered useless; likewise, if the wielder was forced into a situation where they could not evade or block it was equally useless. Against Tsunade, whose taijutsu style relied heavily on being able to evade attacks while striking fast and hard to deal enough damage to put an enemy down on the first or second hit, Itachi's eyes would be mostly useless in an environment where he wouldn't possibly move far enough to evade her attacks and blocking would guarantee shattered bones which would eliminate the possibility of any jutsu.

Blocking a kunai strike, she knocked the Uchiha's arm away and brought her opposite hand forward in an attempt to cave his chest in with a palm-strike. Itachi jumped back just enough to step outside of her reach, stepping back in as she brought the arm back and flicking his kunai at her before attempting to seal. Swatting the kunai aside, Tsunade brought her right arm up and out in a vicious wide swing. Her gloved fist dug a trench into the wall, sending fragments and concrete dust into the younger ninja'a face. Seeing him temporarily distracted, she stepped forward with a short kick, forcing him back again. _'Just a little further, you son of a bitch. I won't let you take my family away from me!'_

Itachi reached into his shuriken pouch, pulling out several tagged weapons and flinging them at the Sannin. A stomp into the ground from Tsunade caused the ground between them to rise up, shielding her as the weapons exploded against the improvised wall. Not having expected his weapons to go off in his face, Itachi was flung back into the wall at the end of the hallway. He covered his mouth as he began violently coughing up blood. "Not now," he murmured, even as Tsunade's fists demolished the wall she'd made, sending chunks of it smashing into the wall around him. The woman herself smirked, seeing him with his back to the wall and dashed forward to finish it.

The battle had been quick and brutally one-sided. Tsunade panted as she looked down on the Uchiha's incapacitated and unconscious form. Regardless of how much she wanted to end him right then and there, they needed the Uchiha alive—if only for the moment—if they were going to get any information out of him regarding the rest of Akatsuki. "Oi, Baa-chan!" a voice called from down the corridor, drawing her attention away from the tied up missing-nin for just a moment as she spotted the four younger shinobi of their group make their way into the hotel and hurrying towards her and the fallen form of the Uchiha. A whisper from her feet drew her attention back to the threat, who had revived far too early.

"If Akatsuki can not have him, no one will," Itachi murmured, his right eye bleeding as it evolved into Mangekyo. "Ameterasu," the missing-nin intoned, even as Tsunade ground his head into paste under the heel of her sandal-clad foot. The screams of kunoichi drew her attention back to the other group and Naruto—who was covered in the black flames of that dojutsu. The boy's screams silenced quickly even as Tsunade rushed over and the flames died shortly after the death of the man who had cast them. Tsunade didn't even register herself screaming the boy's name as she attempted to revive him, nor did she register Anko and Shizune joining them from the room.

_'This can't be happening. Not again. Please, not again. Damn it you brat, YOU PROMISED ME!' _In desperation, Tsunade turned to the last place she'd have ever thought to look for help. "Kyuubi!" she yelled, hoping there was still enough of the fox left in what was left of the burned out seal on the boy's corpse to hear her. "Fix this, now!" Getting no response, she tried again. "Come on you stupid fox! DO SOMETHING!"

"Tsunade-sama," a soft voice called as a small hand grasped her shoulder. "It... it's too late," Shizune murmured.

Looking more subdued than any of the group had seen her since she first joined them, Anko left and returned a moment later with a sheet pulled from the bed. Wordlessly, the kunoichi draped it over the unrecognizable form of what had once been a human being—had been one of the few people to have seen past the taint her former sensei had left on her and simply seen _Anko_. After wrapping his body, she checked the rooms next to theirs. Finding them empty, she kicked the door in on one and carefully lifted the body before placing it on the bed. Finished moving the boy's body, she dropped to the floor opposite the bed and leaned against the wall, intending to take up a vigil over the room until sunrise. After all, Kisame was probably out there somewhere expecting Itachi to come back with Naruto... Her jaw clenched at the thought of the boy's name, tears working their way from the corners of her eyes even as she was joined by the other younger members of the group save for Shizune. Silently, she swore as soon as daybreak came and they paid the boy their final respects, she would hunt down every single last one of those cloud-cloaked motherfuckers and feed them to her snakes. Or maybe toads. Naruto would have liked that...

Ignoring her own need to grieve for the moment, Shizune urged the emotionally-broken form of her mentor into the room they had intended to share with Anko and the others. Seeing the Sannin's state of shock, Shizune sighed before she removed the outer layer of Tsunade's clothes and pulled her unprotesting form onto the bed where she wrapped her sensei in a hug and finally broke down into tears against the warmth of the older woman's chest. Beside her, Tsunade did likewise as the reality of the situation finally settled in. Naruto was dead. Itachi had burned Naruto alive before her eyes and all of her skill and experience had been rendered useless in the face of the black flames. Everything she had trained so hard and for so long to attain had turned to ash.

She had sworn, so long ago, she would never let anyone else get as close as her long lost lover and brother had. And then that annoying, stubborn, wonderful little fool had come along and forced her to acknowledge him. He had promised that he wouldn't let the curse on the necklace kill him—that he was stronger than that. He had lied. She forced the thought away violently.

Tsunade's eyes opened slightly when she felt Shizune's sobs quiet into soft hiccups against her chest. Shizune, who had been there for her for so long after the death of her lover. Shizune, who had never been anything but supportive and kind to her even at her worst. Shizune, who was the last link she had left to Dan, Nawaki, and now Naruto. Desperate to feel close to someone—to feel something, anything, other than the pain seizing her heart in a death grip, she turned to the last precious person she had left.

Shizune did not protest when the Sannin pressed her lips violently to her own—if she could do just this much to spare her mentor and friend the sorrow of losing the first bit of happiness, of hope she had felt in years, then she would. She made no sound of protest even as Tsunade ripped her night clothes open and proceeded to steal her innocence. They both needed some form of escape at the moment, and if it was Tsunade... she didn't mind. She would have preferred Naruto, though. The thought brought her tears back, though she remained quiet lest she distract Tsunade.

As morning dawned, Tsunade groaned and painfully opened her eyes. _'A dream?'_ she thought, finding herself alone and sporting the usual massive headache that signaled a hangover. _'Tsukiyomi, maybe?'_ she wondered. The door to the room opened as the key was turned in the lock and Tenten made her way quietly into the room to check on Tsunade and Shizune.

Looking around, Tenten frowned. "Where's Shizune?" she asked. Getting a shrug from the Sannin, Tenten noticed the closed bathroom door. Knocking, she opened it a moment later. She stuck her head in but quickly stumbled back. "Tsunade-sama!" the girl yelled, her voice conveying her panic loud and clear to the Sannin.

Dreading what she would find, Tsunade jumped up from the bed and pushed past Tenten. Inside the bathroom, she found the tub full of water and in the bottom, the nude form of her first apprentice. Quickly reaching in, she pulled her apprentice out and checked for signs of life. She began to tremble as her jutsu told her the younger girl had been dead for some time. There were no visible wounds, leaving Tsunade to suspect Shizune had used a medical jutsu to either stop her heart or cease her higher brain functions. A discoloration of Shizune's skin drew Tsunade's attention to a small ring of teeth marks atop the younger girl's left breast. The memory of putting that there the night before came back violently_. 'I drove her to this. I did this. _I _killed her.' _Tsunade's head hit the edge of the tub on the way down as she passed out.

* * *

Uchiha Itachi felt no sense of satisfaction as he watched Tsunade's form crumple halfway between the her shared room with the others and the soda machine. He had caught her in Tsukiyomi shortly after she'd exited the room and forced her to live her worst fears. She had needed very little direction from him to wrap her mind completely around the genjutsu and embrace it. He felt no pride that this particular variation of the typical Tsukiyomi illusion had borne fruit far better than he had ever expect it to, more so even than his usual three-days-of-torture illusion. All it had really taken was a little push in the right direction and Tsunade had spun the reality of the illusion around herself—the illusion forcing her to live two of her greatest fears at once: losing the two most important people left in her life and losing her self-control and forcing herself onto one in an act of desperation. Turning from the downed woman, he calmly made his way from the hotel towards where he knew Kisame would be.

* * *

After getting a hotel room, the group of four asked directions to and found a karaoke bar. After a few hours of laughing, eating decent food they didn't have to cook, and Tenten convincing them that ordering sweet sake would only make the night more entertaining the group left the karaoke bar. Hinata clung to Naruto's side for support, the blond had one arm wrapped around Hinata and one of Haku's arms under his own equally supporting and being supported by the older boy, Tenten leaning against the other side of Haku from Naruto.

"Oh man, I'm going to regret this in the morning," Tenten yawned. A moment later, there was a dull thud as she fell face-first onto the pavement.

Naruto sighed. "Why does this kind of thing always happen to me?"

"You're just that lucky, brat," a deep voice called from behind the group even as Hinata hit the pavement on the other side of Naruto.

"What the hell?!" the blond yelled, turning to face the source of the familiar voice.

Doing likewise, Haku's eyes widened upon sighting the tall, cloaked figure. "You."

Hoshigaki Kisame smirked. "Me," he nodded. Finding out when the team would arrive was easy enough. Following them at a distance and then throwing on a genjutsu to slip into the same karaoke bar and lace their drinks with drugs to dull the senses and slow the mind was just as simple—after all, they were only chuunin and not paranoid to the point where they would check all of their food for toxins yet. Besides, who would think to check alcohol for a drug that mimicked its effects? It was odorless, tasteless, colorless—unless the person under the influence had any real experience with alcohol then nine times out of ten they simple dismissed its effects as having a low tolerance. Slipping up behind them and swatting the two kunoichi without so much as being detected had been amusing—if a little too easy, with the drugs pretty much nullifying their ability to focus and detect outside sources of chakra short of large-scale jutsu used at close range. Too bad Itachi wouldn't let him cut the brat's legs off this time either. He turned his attention away from the blond momentarily. "Well, well. If it isn't little Haku-chan," the shark smirked. "Heard you'd kicked it with Zabuza over in Wave a few months back."

Haku was halfway into sealing for one of the few ice jutsu he knew, ignoring what felt like a fist clenching around his heart as he attempted to mold chakra for the jutsu, when something slammed into him and Naruto from behind with enough force to send them crashing into the wall of the building beside the small group and send Haku straight into unconsciousness. "You bastard," Naruto growled dragging himself to his feet. Everything felt sluggish—as though it took several seconds for intent to go from brain to muscles to convince his body to move.

"Hello, Naruto-kun," another voice greeted. Knowing he shouldn't but doing so anyway, he turned his head far enough to regard the other half of the Akatsuki duo he knew would be hanging around somewhere. Itachi's left Sharingan eye widened, the eye changing from normal Sharingan to Mangekyo. "Tsukiyomi."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Finally got this chapter to something closer to how I wanted it. I think it works, anyway. Next chapter and the one after are being difficult and I'm sort of taking a break to play some Tales of Symphonia for inspiration for something coming up. If I actually decide to do it. ...I want to, kind of, but I'm afraid if I do it wrong it'll ruin the story. Eh, Saiori likes the idea anyway. Speaking of whom, thanks again for prereading.

On Tsukiyomi vs Tsunade: ...do I really need to explain this one? The Sharinhax is essentially the ultimate dojutsu, or so Kishimoto portrays it. It can suppress and/or control Kyuubi and probably other bijuu? Copies everything it sees? Sees through all genjutsu save for those cast by another Sharingan? The guy with the 'ultimate dojutsu,' the Rinnegan is subordinate to a guy with just one Sharingan? Fire that burns anything? An unbreakable genjutsu where its wielder is essentially a god for however long he decides is '72 hours'? And a freaking chakra shell body wielding not one but two legendary chakra weapons? And those are mostly just Itachi's abilities. That's not even counting Tobi/Obito/Madara and Kakashi's abilities. It's cheap and essentially an excuse for Kishimoto to keep Sasuke on a level playing field (and that's a damn joke in and of itself) with someone who has a freaking DEMON LORD, chakra monster, or whatever you want to call it giving him power. Seriously, Sasuke and his team beat the eight-tails at full power? Naruto somehow can only use four tails of his power and at that point it's uncontrolled. Again, seriously tipping the scales in Sasuke's favor. And even Orochimaru fears Itachi's eyes, it's why he went after Sasuke and not the elder Uchiha. So if you disagree that Tsunade could be caught in it if she weren't paying attention (they're Sannin, but none of them keep their guard up 24/7, and we have canon evidence to prove they're human) then I'm afraid you're just going to have to stop reading. Right now. Seriously. You probably know (or at least have a rough idea) what's coming next anyway if you've read the challenge, so if you couldn't handle Tsunade getting sharingan'd then you'll probably hate that too.

On a side note, regarding the last chapter Saiori says, and I quote**: **tell all those 'use your imagination as it's censored' and moaners that they can go suck a lemon if they want to make any more complaints. this is a F.A.N.F.I.C for a reason people; the story will progress at the author's set pace, on the author's set course. got a problem? go...watch canon or something horrendous. End quote. Of course, since ffpm censors stuff, had to fix the asterisks. He and I both thought it would be amusing to copy/paste that little bit of rant into the bottom of this.

On the subject of the previous chapter: do you think it just _**might**_ be possible for a person who is known to be impulsive and rarely think things through to, despite _starting_ to change his old ways, lapse back into them on occasion when he shouldn't? Remember, at this point in time, Naruto's only been outside of Konoha for, at most, two months (honestly, I stopped keeping track shortly after the Isaribi arc) and I doubt that's enough time to fully correct YEARS of bad habits and such. What I wrote was what I thought would be a human reaction—and last I checked, most people rarely learn from their mistakes the first time around. Have a little more faith in me from now on, people, hokeydokey?

On a side, side note: afk watching more Natsume Yuujinchou and Kodomo no Jikan. Yes, those are shameless plugs for two of the most awesome anime I've watched in the past two or so weeks. You should watch them.


	20. Unbreakable Bonds of a Different Sort

**The Missing Hokage**

**20: Unbreakable Bonds of a Different Sort**

* * *

_'Have I failed as a sensei?'_ Hatake Kakashi mused in the subdued predawn light. Overhead, dark clouds had gathered and threatened rain. As he often did these days, Kakashi found himself once again asking himself that fundamental question. That one, and another. _'Have I failed Minato-sensei?'_

Kakashi knew there were many things he could have done directly to avoid the current situation they were all left in. He could have failed Team Seven right from the start, which would have changed the course of events leading up to the Chuunin Exams. His team would have never faced Orochimaru. Sasuke would possibly not have been marked by the Sannin. Sasuke would have never found power in that cursed seal and sought more from the source. Naruto would never have been exiled.

The scarecrow shook his head. Hindsight may have been 20/20 but there was no real way of knowing what would have happened. If he'd failed Team Seven, Naruto's career as a shinobi would have ended right there and the boy would have been tossed out on the streets—hiring the boy anywhere in Konoha would have been suicide for any business, even if someone did tolerate him enough to do so the store would immediately go out of business as people would refuse to shop there. Sasuke and Sakura would have both attempted to try to graduate again, possibly even going on to pass and be assigned to another team. Orochimaru still would have sought out the Uchiha. Sasuke may have left Konoha even sooner. Naruto would not have gotten training from Jiraiya and without the ability to summon Gamabunta against Gaara, Konoha could have possibly fallen if Jiraiya did not find a way to defeat the boy. Naruto would not have been with Jiraiya to convince Tsunade to return. Danzou would have potentially become Hokage.

As the skies opened up above Kakashi and a cold rain started to fall, hard and heavy, he came to realize the painful truth. He had failed Team Seven as a sensei. He had focused nearly all of his attention and effort—what little of either he actually put in—into Sasuke while ignoring his other two students. Instead of focusing on getting a large number of missions under the team's—and by extension, Sasuke's—belt he should have focused more on basic skills. For instance, he should have had the entire group—but especially Naruto—tree climbing from day one. Even if he did screw around and make them wait two to three hours a every day, telling them to do that until he got there would have put use to time that was otherwise wasted. He had _seen_ Naruto's living conditions and knew firsthand the boy wasn't even eating properly. If he had put even a little effort into it, he could have put them on a strict died aimed at building up muscle mass and bone structure—hell, Gai would have been more than willing to help if he'd bothered to ask.

It was a toss-up as to who he had failed most. Sasuke, by not directly providing him incentive to stay in Konoha and instead relying on the others to draw the boy away from his desire for revenge against his brother. Sakura, by not breaking her worship of Sasuke the moment he learned of it, thinking it would be good to have at least one member of the team loyal to the others. He had hoped that some of that devotion towards Sasuke would bleed over towards Naruto, strengthening them as a team. And again with the kunoichi by not forcing her to concentrate on her training as opposed to Sasuke. Naruto... Naruto he had failed by realizing just how far behind the boy was and doing _nothing_ to fix it. He assumed that the drive to out-perform Sasuke would motivate the blond boy to improve, thus forcing Sasuke to improve to keep his lead over the blond in a friendly rivalry. It had, except that Naruto had been so far behind that it had taken too long. And when the boy had actually received instruction from Jiraiya, he had improved by leaps and bounds—quickly catching up to and shooting past Sasuke in some areas. Perhaps that was what had finally driven Sasuke from Konoha—learning just how good Naruto could become under a different instructor.

Pushing those thoughts to the side for the moment, Kakashi found a new line of thought to pursue. _'What now?'_ he wondered, neither noticing nor caring as the rain plastered his hair to his head. At the moment, it was too late to do anything about Sasuke. The next time he saw the Uchiha, they would probably be enemies. Naruto? There was no way for him to make amends to the blond boy who looked so much like his own sensei. Naruto was exiled and currently on the road with Tsunade and several others. Perhaps the boy was in better company now than at any time while he was in Konoha. And as for Sakura... well, he had already handed her off to Kurenai as a temporary replacement for Hinata. Really, there wasn't much he could teach Sakura now that Kurenai couldn't. It was with a start that Kakashi realized that at the moment, he was neither needed nor possibly even wanted by any of his former students. He had once told them that those who disobey orders are trash, but those who abandon their comrades were worse than trash. His own father had been called upon to commit seppuku for failing a mission to save his team. Kakashi had failed both his mission—his duty as a sensei—and his team all in the same breath. _'What now, Obito?'_

Across Konoha, Yamanaka Ino huffed out a breath of frustration as she stared out the windows of her family's shop and into the rain. Ino hated days like this. Cold, dreary, and they only served to remind the girl that something had been missing from the village she called home for some time now. It wasn't anything she could really put her finger on, but she knew that it had left behind a feeling just like today—dark, cold, and just a little lonely. It felt like Konoha hadn't seen the sun in months. Not since... Ino had to force herself to finish the thought. Really, all of this had started almost the same day Uzumaki Naruto just walked out of Konoha.

Ino snorted in annoyance as she grabbed some paper towels to wipe the condensation from the inside of the store windows. It wasn't like she was ever really even friends with the loudmouth. ...And yet, she found she actually missed the little annoyance. As—here, Ino shuddered to use the word her dark-haired teammate loved so much—_troublesome_ as Naruto could be, the boy made nearly everyone around him feel more alive simply by being there. Well... nearly everyone, since sentiment from the vast majority of the adults towards Naruto had never been anything more than barely-concealed hostility on most days. And now that he was gone, she knew that even those people who had openly hated the boy were feeling the same thing she felt—that someone had stolen the sun from their lives and tossed it aside like some useless piece of garbage.

Finished wiping down the windows, Ino tossed the wet paper towels into a trash bin and looked around the street outside the shop from the now-clean windows. The streets were nearly deserted when there should have been a morning rush as people scrambled to do their business before going in to work. Turning away from the windows, she made her way back to the counter to sit on the stool behind it and idly flip through a gardening magazine. She tried to convince herself it was really Sasuke's absence that made the village seem so bleak, but even as she thought it she knew it to be a lie. As much as pretty much everyone loved Sasuke, none of them could say he had ever really caused them to feel better simply by being there. For as long as she had known him, Sasuke had always been cold, distant, shrouded in mystery. It seemed Naruto was the other half of that—warm, friendly, open... all blue skies and sunshine. _'I hate days like this.'_

And elsewhere in Konoha, Team Kurenai practiced in the rain. Shinobi battles did not call time out on account of weather, after all. As he jogged around their training field beside Shino and Sakura along with Akamaru, Kiba cast a sidelong glance at his sensei. The red-eyed jonin had seemed vaguely pleased about something for most of the week, though beyond that she seemed anxious. Kiba could feel it in the air—almost say he smelled it, really. Outwardly calm though she seemed, Kiba and Shino both had known her long enough to agree that she seemed tense about something—as though waiting for the other shoe to drop. Kiba found it an odd coincidence that for nearly the same amount of time, his older sister had seemed the same way. She hid it fairly well, but the elder Inuzuka heir radiated the same tension that their sensei seemed to feel. Hana had become somewhat more withdrawn and, for lack of a better word, paranoid as well. She seemed hyper-aware of her surroundings at all times, as though expecting some sort of attack. Not unusual, considering the recent invasion attempt by Sound and Sand, but this just felt different.

Shaking off the oddities of his sister and sensei as simply one more thing women had in common that he—as a man—would never understand, Kiba focused his attention on their newest teammate. On the other side of him from Shino, Sakura panted quietly as she pushed herself to keep up. The girl's endurance was pathetic, making him wonder just what it was her old sensei did all day if not train his students. Well, now-former students. Thoughts of the Uchiha and the Uzumaki quickly superseded thoughts of their kunoichi teammate in his mind. The thought of the Uchiha still made him nearly physically ill. Sasuke had defected from Konoha, betrayed them all to go off and learn from some weirdo. The Uchiha had nearly gotten himself and the other members of the team sent to retrieve him killed—had nearly killed Naruto himself, if rumors were to be believed. If it didn't sound too unbelievable to be true, it would have further sickened the Inuzuka's male heir.

It wasn't that he found the idea of Sasuke nearly killing Naruto unbelievable—far from it, actually. It was the scale of the supposed battle that was unbelievable. The Dead Last against the Rookie of the Year? It should have been a no-brainer. And yet, he had been there with the rest of them as they limped back to Konoha. He had seen the evidence with his own eyes, smelled it with his own nose—Naruto's jacket and shirt looked as though someone had burned a hole in it with something and blood coated the edges of the tears. The blond had stunk of ozone and burned flesh, as though he had been partially electrocuted. That the Uchiha could abandon his home, his team, and even turn on those same comrades... Loyalty was something bred into the core of every Inuzuka and such betrayals went against everything Kiba believed in.

And then there was Naruto. Kiba honestly didn't know how to feel about the blond. They hadn't been friends, exactly, but they had never hated each other either. Naruto could be fun to hang out with at times and occasionally helping the blond prank the academy before they graduated had been some of the most fun times Kiba had ever had during that time. Kiba was also still a little annoyed that the fox faced blond had lucked out during the preliminary fights and ruined his chances of participating in the final round of the Chuunin Exam and he itched for a rematch. And finally, perhaps the thing that really pissed Kiba off most about the blond idiot was that the boy had had Hinata's affection since pretty much the first time she laid eyes on him—and he didn't even see it! And now, it would be almost impossible for him to miss since she had left the village with the blond, along with their former Hokage and her apprentice. Kiba would give almost anything for a chance to beat the blond down and prove once and for all that the other boy wasn't worth Hinata's time.

"That's enough for now," Kurenai called, breaking Kiba out of his thoughts. "Kiba, Shino, you're sparring. Sakura, you take the winner."

Hearing that, Kiba grinned. _'Sorry Shino, I need to blow off some steam,'_ the Inuzuka thought, breaking into a charge towards his teammate.

* * *

Back in Otafuku Gai, Naruko flipped through a book behind the counter in Dane's shop. This was not the same pink-covered manga or one like it that she had been reading off and on since Naruto had left for Snow. No, the book resting on the counter had a distinctly familiar orange cover. She snorted as she neared the bottom of one page and moved on to the next. _'Ero-Sennin is pretty good, but some of this is just plain crap. It's like he spends more time working on the smut than the plot,'_ she mused.

Naruko had initially protested to reading the perverted book her senseis loved so much, but Temari would not be denied. She had bought copies of the first three books and forced them into the younger blonde's hands, saying, "Trust me, you're going to need to read these." She had grinned before adding, "They're not the best guide for what to do—really more of a guide for what _not_ to do in a relationship. But on the... racier stuff, they're dead on."

Naruko sighed, flipping the page. _'I really don't get some of this crap. Seriously, 'she smiled around his root as she drank his sap,' what the hell is that pervert talking about? Knowing him, it's either some allusion to sake or something really perverted.'_ Rolling her eyes, she made a mental note to either ask Temari or Shizune. The medic in question had answered all of her questions and then some when Naruto actually got around to asking, but the books had brought forth a whole slew of questions she hadn't known to ask. For instance, the Sannin liked to use the word 'come' in its various tenses, leaving the girl wondering where the characters were supposed to be coming from and/or going to. The rest of it had been fairly easy to understand, however, and had left her blushing from her hair down to her breasts. The thought of using mouth, tongue, teeth, hands, fingers, and even _feet_ in those ways had never occurred to the blonde and had brought up all sorts of interesting, if embarrassing, ideas.

The bell above the door chimed and Naruko jerked the book under the counter reflexively before looking up to meet the grinning face of the Suna kunoichi. Sending the older girl a sheepish look, she grinned as well. "What's up?"

Temari shrugged, moving through the racks to browse. "Just got bored."

Naruko snickered. "Don't you ever train?"

"I do almost every morning," the other girl answered absently. After a moment, she paused before regarding the shorter blonde. "Wait, you mean for the whole day?" Seeing Naruko nod, she shook her head. "Oh hell no. There's no way. I'm pretty sure that would kill me if I tried to do it more than once a week. What about you? I never see you training anything but chakra control or reading."

The younger blonde shrugged. "I'm not really that much of a physical fighter most of the time," she answered vaguely. Even as the words left her mouth, a thought occurred. Kage bunshin, while useful, were notorious for dispersing with any sort of real damage. However, every single last one of them was fully capable of casting jutsu. Why waste clones on close combat when it would be simpler and possibly more effective to just have them blanket an area with various jutsu. Even the most skilled ninja would be hard pressed to avoid a plethora of wide-range area of effect jutsu cast simultaneously. While not the best, or even a halfway decent solution for dealing with a single enemy combatant—Orochimaru, for example—it would be ideal for going against large numbers of enemy forces. A second thought occurred swiftly behind the first: she/he/they would need more clones. They would need something other than kage bunshin and normal bunshin if they wanted the clones to last for any real period of time in a physical fight. Maybe water clones like Zabuza used, or mud clones like the snake freak. Anko probably knew the latter and when Haku got to where he could use chakra, Naruto could ask if he knew the former.

Naruko blinked as she realized she was doing it again—referring to Naruto as a separate individual. _'He... I.. shit. _Someone's _going to be questioning their sanity by the time this prank is over,'_ the girl mused, watching Temari hold up various outfits before placing them back where she'd gotten them. "What's wrong with the clothes you've got on?" Naruko asked after a few moments of observation.

Temari blinked, sending the younger blonde a confused look. After a moment, she sighed as she remembered what she'd learned about the other girl. She forgot sometimes that Naruko somehow didn't seem to grasp even the simplest of concepts that she herself took for granted most of the time. "A girl can never have too many clothes."

Naruko raised an eyebrow. "You've got like three outfits," she pointed out. "And you hardly ever wear anything but ninja gear. What's the point?"

Temari shrugged. "A girl likes to get dressed up occasionally. Try something different for once. I mean, you almost always wear the same thing. Makes me wonder if you just have ten copies of the same outfit or wash it every night."

The younger blonde shrugged. "A little bit of both, really," she answered, thinking over the other girl's words. _'So Dane was right. Women love clothes,'_ she mused. A moment later, she nearly fell face-first into the counter, causing Temari to send her an amused, if worried, look.

"You ok over there?"

Naruko nodded quickly, her mind turning over her most recent revelation. "Uh, fine," she answered quietly. _'Temari made out with me. Anko molested Naruto. Hinata always used to blush at the sight of me—of Naruto. Temari bought me _Icha Icha _and made me read it.'_ The facts added up to one very odd conclusion, but it was one the blonde was forced to make nonetheless. _'Women really are just as perverted as guys, if not more. They just try to hide it, or are better at hiding it.'_

"You sure you're ok? You look like someone just smashed you over the head with a clue-by-four," Temari snickered. _'I suppose Naruko actually figuring things out would be almost too much to hope for. Seems way too easy.'_

"Shaddap," Naruko grumbled, sticking her tongue out. _'So maybe the rest of what he said is true and it's not really all that perverted. Which means... Which means I can push the prank even further! She's going to be pissed, but it'll be worth it to see the looks on their faces.'_

Temari's finely honed danger senses began screaming at her and her head jerked around to regard the younger blonde again. That familiar foxy smirk adorned her cute face, whisker marks scrunched up and eyes partly closed in a look that was far too foxy to be entirely natural. "That can not be good," the older blonde murmured. The younger blonde's next actions confirmed her suspicion.

"Oh Temari-_chan_," Naruko called, dragging out the 'a' in 'chan.' The foxy girl's grin widened. "Let's play!"

"Ah, crap," Temari breathed, dropping the clothes in her hands and bolting for the door. _'I've created a monster,'_ she thought briefly, a grin slipping across her lips as she fled. Naruko was hot on her heels, laughing every step of the way.

From the back of the store, Dane poked his head out and regarded the now-vacant counter. "Naruto, take over the counter," he called in the general direction of a group of clones before going back to work.

"How am I supposed to have my way with you if you won't hold still!" Naruko called, causing people in the streets below to shoot the pair of blondes odd glances as they bounced across the rooftops for the edge of town.

_'She's enjoying this more than I am,'_ Temari mused, taking to the trees and heading in the general direction of Team Hokage's home. Idly, she wondered if she should actually try to evade the younger blonde or if she should let herself be caught. Questions as to what would possibly happen afterward were pushed into the corner of her mind for the moment as she realized that getting her hopes up would probably be sort of futile, due to the other blonde's complete lack of experience—along with her own—and naivety. She blinked when a blue-shrouded blur of black and blonde blew past her before materializing into Naruko on a tree branch a few trees ahead, the younger girl's arms crossed under her breasts and the same look still on her face. Rolling her eyes, Temari dropped to the ground a tree short of the younger blonde and kept running. "Show off," she murmured. Halfway across the front yard of Team Hokage's home, Temari heard a dull thump behind her and the sound of chasing footfalls stopped. Halting her run for the door, Temari turned around to regard the other blonde. She found Naruko sprawled face-first on the ground, her chest moving in quick, shallow breaths. "Naruko?"

Approaching the smaller blonde, Temari quickly rolled her over onto her back. The other girl's eyes were unfocused and wide open, her entire body limp as she panted softly. "Shit," she murmured in worry, quickly lifting the smaller girl and bringing her into the house. "What's wrong with you?" she asked quietly, laying the other blonde on one of the living room couches.

"Naruto," the clone choked out. _'He's dying? _I'm _dying?'_ the thought flitted across her mind. _'What happens to _me _if the real me dies?'_ she wondered, her eyes closing as the memories of close to a hundred Naruto clones slammed into her mind at the same time. They had all popped and those few that were left were still dispersing. _'I'm next.'_ It was odd, but she found that the thought actually frightened her. She latched on to that feeling and the realization that came with it, even as everything went black. _'I don't want to die!'_

* * *

"Stop pacing," Tsunade ordered firmly. Seeing that the ex-Hyuuga either hadn't heard her or simply didn't care, she sighed. After a moment of thought, she reached out and snagged Hinata's arm on the girl's next pass, pulling the smaller girl to sit down on the bed between her legs. "We've still got time," she reminded the smaller girl, pulling her into a hug.

Hinata returned the hug weakly. "I know, but it's so hard not to worry. They have him and..."

It was Haku who silenced the dark-haired girl's rambling. "We are all worried about Naruto-kun," he spoke quietly, drawing the girl's attention briefly. "We simply do not wish to rush into battle unprepared."

Honestly, it had taken every ounce of will power Tsunade could muster not to immediately chase after the pair of missing nin who had kidnapped Naruto and flatten them into paste the moment Shizune had revived her from Tsukiyomi-induced unconsciousness. Their hotel room door opened to admit Anko, Shizune, and Tenten. "Well?"

Tenten started passing out scrolls. "Fresh gear for all of us. Shuriken, kunai, senbon, explosive tags, smoke bombs, wire, soldier pills, blood replenishing pills—pretty much everything I thought we could actually use. I'd have even gotten a few of their bigger toys, but the work on them was shoddy as hell. I'm surprised this stuff is as good as it is, considering."

"I sent a lizard back to Otafuku Gai. With any luck, it'll get to one of the clones in time and we'll have at least a clone of Naruto with us for backup," Anko shrugged.

Nodding, Shizune added, "I sent word by toad to Jiraiya-sama." Silently, she wondered why her mentor seemed to be unable to meet her eyes for any prolonged period of time. She gave it up as she reasoned that it probably had something to do with Itachi's genjutsu and if Tsunade wanted her to know, then the Sannin would tell her in her own time.

Helping Hinata to her feet, Tsunade stood as well. "Make sure you're prepared—we leave within the hour." As the group went about making preparations to leave, Tsunade turned towards Haku and spoke quietly. "You still can't use chakra." Seeing his nod, she opened her mouth to continue but he cut her off.

"Please do not ask me to simply stay behind while all of you leave to attempt to rescue Naruto-kun," the boy told the Sannin quietly, but firmly. "Even if I am limited to strictly taijutsu at the moment, I know how Kisame-san fights. Can you claim as much? I _can_ be more than just a hindrance."

After a moment, Tsunade nodded in acceptance. "Don't get yourself killed again. I don't want him to have to face that."

"Once was more than enough," the dark-haired boy nodded before moving off to secure his own gear.

"You're sure you know which one it is?" Anko asked of Hinata once their hour had passed.

Hinata nodded. "I am sure," she confirmed, drawing a shallow cut on her thumb with a kunai and sealing as, beside her, Anko and Shizune did the same. While Hinata was attempting to summon a specific creature, the other two were summoning with something more vague in mind. A moment later a large cloud of chakra and smoke cleared signaling the arrival of a pack of six dogs of various breeds and a seventh dog with familiar blue and black fur.

Looking around, the familiar great dane regarded the expectant group. "Lose someone again?" he asked, not seeing the blond.

"We need you to find Naruto again," Tsunade answered.

Nodding, the dane caught the familiar scent trail quickly, following it back to the karaoke bar as two of the other dogs followed another scent that Tsunade identified as probably belonging to Itachi—half of their group following Itachi's trail and the others following Naruto's. The two groups met again where Tenten, Hinata, and Haku had woken up some time after being knocked unconscious by Kisame. The dogs spread out as the trail ended, several taking to the surrounding roof-tops. After a moment, dog nearly as tall as the great dane pointed off towards the west before giving a bark and following the trail it'd found.

The kunoichi followed as the trail led them into the forest, three of the smaller dogs actually taking to the tree-tops while the other four spread out to follow from the ground. They lost the trail within the first half hour of running but found it again shortly, this time veering off more towards the north. The process repeated with some regularity up until well after mid-day, with the dogs losing the trail and finding it again going in a slightly different direction. Several miles outside the town, the trail stopped changing course and simply ran north towards Lightening Country. Not wanting to risk losing the trail in case they suddenly changed course again, the group chose not to ride summons now that they had a general idea of where Itachi and Kisame were heading with Naruto.

As she kept pace between Tenten and Haku, Hinata occasionally scanned the surrounding area with her Byakugan for any sign of pursuers, enemy ninja, and pretty much anything out of the ordinary. But especially, she hoped to catch sigh of a familiar chakra and orange-and-black clothes. _'We're coming, Naruto-kun.'_

* * *

Itachi watched, detached, as red chakra streamed out of the blond boy beneath them and into the statue. Initially, he'd had high hopes for the Kyuubi-vessel. If his brother could not, then perhaps the blond would have been able to provide him with the end he preferred to meet. The boy's potential had seemed unlimited and he knew he had not misjudged. It was simply too soon. With time and effort, the boy would have been able to surpass even the Sannin. While aware of his own level of skill, Itachi was not so presumptuous as to believe he was quite to the point of surpassing the Sannin in skill yet. His Sharingan simply tilted the scales far into his own favor. Without it, he was just a very good ninja of higher-than-Jonin skill—S-ranked for sure, but no real threat to someone on the level of the Sannin, who seemed to be in a league of their own.

A twinge of a seal being set off caught his attention.. A moment later, one placed closer activated as well. "They are coming."

The shadowed form of their leader nodded. "We are nearly finished here. Keep them from interfering." Nodding, Itachi leaped down from his perch on one of the statue's fingers, closely followed by Kisame.

* * *

_'It's dark.'_

Where there had been only nothing for a time, there was now something to focus on. With that thought, he regained some sense of self. A hand attached to a tan arm waved briefly in front of him before he realized it was his own. His mind slowly cleared, returning to something approaching its normal state. _'Where am I?'_

Looking around, he saw only blackness. Extending a hand, he felt it brush against something solid and flat. _'Wall.'_ Pulling himself to his feet, he found himself standing on solid ground. _'Floor.'_ A dim light up ahead drew his attention to what looked like a hallway of some sort, the walls and floor made of stone and pipes running along the ceiling. Quickly making his way towards the light, he found himself on familiar ground. "The seal."

Shaking his head to clear out the residual cobwebs, Naruto started walking. As he came to an intersection, he looked to either side and found nothing but darkness a few feet in. Shrugging, he continued to walk straight ahead. After walking some distance, he found another intersection. The path ahead was unlit, though the corridor to the right appeared normal. Naruto went right.

Naruto had no idea how long he walked, turning down the less traveled paths of what he had come to believe was a representation of the seal that held Kyuubi in check. After what seemed like days, he came upon more familiar ground again and hurried forward, knowing the gate room was just around the corner. He nearly sighed with relief as he entered the room that held the demon. "Oi, you dumb fox! What the hell is going on?" He blinked as he registered that the bars that held the demon in check were bending and warping inward, though the seal in their center and the area immediately around it held firm.

A dry chuckle came from somewhere near the back of the cage, though even to Naruto's ears it sounded strained. **"What do you think is happening, you little fool?"**

Naruto shrugged. "Everything's going dark outside. What are you doing?"

**"Idiot. I am doing nothing. What you see 'going dark' are your mind and body shutting down in death."**

"Huh?" Naruto asked, scratching the side of his head. "I think I'd know it if I were dying."

The gigantic fox snarled. **"At this very moment, Akatsuki is forcibly dragging me out from behind this seal—and killing you in the process!"**

Naruto blinked as the memory returned slowly. He and the rest of Team Hokage had returned from their mission to Snow. They went out and had a good time. Kisame swatted the living shit out of him with that stupid sword. And that bastard Itachi made him watch Hinata-chan and everyone else die for three days straight, each successive death more creative and gruesome than the last. "I'm going to kill that... that _fucker_!" Naruto could barely make out the sight of the fox's smirk.

**"Not if you're too dead to get the job done,"** it taunted.

"You too, then," the boy pointed out.

**"Possibly."**

Naruto snorted. "Right, like you have any idea what the hell they have planned for you. For all you know, they plan to stick you into a giant blender with the rest of your kind, hit 'puree,' and see what comes out the other end. I'm sure that would leave you pretty damn close to dead, or something like it." The blond grinned as the fox did not deny his point. "So is there actually anything we can do, or should I just annoy the piss out of you until you're gone?"

**"Become my slave."**

Naruto hummed, stroking his chin in thought for a moment. "Nope, sorry. Not happening."

For a moment, the fox seemed to regain some of its usual attitude. **"DO YOU WANT TO DIE, YOU IMPUDENT LITTLE SHIT?!"**

Naruto shook his head. "Not really, no. Really don't like the idea of Akatsuki getting their hands on you either."

**"I didn't know you cared,"** the fox sneered.

"I don't," the boy denied. "You're a bastard and I'd love to be rid of you, but not if it means those assholes get to screw with the rest of the world because of it." Naruto fell silent as he contemplated everything he knew about the fox and exactly what sort of trouble Akatsuki would cause for everyone with that sort of power at their fingertips. Honestly, he didn't want to die. He had finally found friends, family, people who cared about him... people who loved him. Before, if it had been a choice between him dying or one of his precious people, then the decision was an easy one to make—he would have given his life every time. Now though? He wanted to live, and he wanted them to live as well. After all, what point was there if one or the other of them had to live without the other? Either he would mourn the loss of those he held dear, or in this case they would wind up mourning him—something he couldn't bear the thought of being responsible for. He looked up when he heard what sounded like nails scratching against stone. "They're almost finished, aren't they?"

**"**_**Yes**_**, you little bastard,"** the demon answered, it's voice seeming to come from further away.

That made his decision for him. The fox's offer, while not tempting in the least, could possibly buy some time. However, if it worked one way, then it was bound to work the other. And after all, hadn't the demon said something about his word being his bond? "Well, it's been nice knowing you!" the blond smirked, turning back towards the exit.

**"You're bluffing!"**

Naruto's smirk turned into a foxy grin. "Want to bet on it?" he asked. After a moment, he snickered and started walking again. "Thought not."

**"Wait."**

The boy paused, turning to regard the fox. That was the closest he had ever heard it even approach a civil tone. "You really want to live?" A raising and lowering of those gigantic red, slitted eyes was interpreted as a nod as that was all he could see of the demon any more. "What'll you trade for it?" he asked, the grin returning. If he knew even one thing about the damn fox, it was that despite its claims to the contrary it did have at least one fear—the same fear every living being held, really. It wanted to live just as badly as he did and the possibility of simply ceasing to exist scared it just as much as it did him—probably more, since for as long as the fox had been around it had always assumed it was immortal and would continue on forever. Suddenly having its nose rubbed in its own mortality would not set well with it at all.

The fox's eyes narrowed. The little brat had it right where he wanted it and the boy knew it. The fox might have even appreciated such a tactic, if it weren't being used on itself at the time. Given the choice between a fate it already knew and detested but would guarantee its continued survival and the unknown, the fox chose the familiar. **"Anything."**

"And 'your word is your bond,' right?" the boy asked, getting a nod in answer. "I don't know... people break promises all the time."

**"It is more than that, you stupid hairless ape. A demon's word is a binding contract. It can not broken unless the ones who make the pact willingly release each other from it or are willing to face death in trying to break it."** After a moment of silence from the boy, it grew impatient as it felt its grip on the seal quickly slipping. **"I know what you're thinking, now just say it and get it over with!"** Kyuubi's pride would not allow it to even suggest what it assumed the boy would demand, even under threat of death.

Naruto thought the idea over briefly. It wouldn't change much, save for giving him a measure more control over the fox if it worked. "Swear to do everything in your power to protect us and my friends and destroy our enemies."

Massive eyes blinked. The fox had _known _the boy would force it to be his slave. After all, it's what the fox would have done and had attempted to do. This almost sounded like something approaching a partnership as opposed to slavery. Then again, the wording was fairly vague, depending on what 'everything in your power' meant. The prospect of binding itself in servitude to the boy, while appalling on every level possible to the fox, did have potential advantages. The first of those being that it was possible that the fox would continue to live—a binding contract could not be broken by outside forces, which Akatsuki pulling the fox out of the boy would definitely qualify as. The next greatest of those was fairly simple: one bound thusly could not serve two masters. And while it both detested and grudgingly respected the boy, there was another it loathed more. Well, at least it had a choice this time. Thinking quickly, the fox said, **"On one condition."** Seeing the boy nod, it growled out, **"Uchiha Madara must **_**die**_**."** A moment later, the fox's eyes widened as it felt itself lose its grip on the blond entirely. **"Hurry!"**

"I accept!"

* * *

Itachi eyed the opposing force of ninja carefully, feeling not even a shred of worry as killing intent radiated from all of them. Beside him, Kisame chuckled. "They look pissed," he smirked, making sure to say it loud enough for them to hear.

"Where is he?" Tsunade asked, her eyes focused on the Uchiha's upper body from the neck down. It would not do to get caught in Tsukiyomi again, not when Naruto needed them most.

"Inside," Itachi answered calmly, gesturing towards the small cave behind himself and his partner. "I am afraid that you are too late." His eyes tracked to the right as a small, dark-haired Hyuuga girl broke from the others. When she simply ran past him and he felt her enter the cave, he dismissed her as a threat for the moment and refocused on the Sannin.

Tsunade nodded faintly, tensing as she prepared to attack the Uchiha. Shizune would provide direct support to Tsunade while she dealt with Itachi while Anko and Haku attempted to take down Kisame. Tenten would provide fire support where and how she could. At least, that had been the plan. At the feeling of a massive buildup of chakra from inside the cave, however, both groups stopped. "What the hell?"

Across from Tsunade, Itachi's eyes narrowed. Kyuubi's chakra should be sealed inside the statue by now, not building freely. Perhaps the boy wasn't quite finished after all. The missing-nin smiled, ever so faintly.

* * *

In the empty cave where the extraction had taken place, Hinata knelt beside Naruto's prone form as she attempted desperately to revive him. Medical chakra flowed from her hands into his body, to no effect. Byakugan and jutsu told her the same thing, both of which she denied, refusing to accept the possibility of a reality without Naruto. To her eyes, the boy had gone dark. No chakra coursed through him, his heart was still in his chest. When she saw a brief flicker, her heart soared as she sought out its source. There, just inside the seal, a small spark of blue seemed to be burning down.

Kyuubi no Kitsune, greatest of the tailed beasts... growled in defeat for what would be the third time in less than two decades. The first, to that bastard Uchiha who had stolen its will. The second, to that annoying blond riding that stupid toad. And finally, to an even more annoying blond who had found a way to force it to bind itself to him of its own free will. Clenching its eyes closed, it uttered the words it had been dreading. **"I so swear."** The fox opened its eyes as a sliver of light penetrated the darkness it had found itself in and it felt a violent jerk in that direction.

Hinata barely even registered its presence as something huge shimmered into view. Turning her head, she regarded the statue that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. A moment later, its central eye glowed brightly before cracking and finally shattering altogether. Hinata reflexively deactivated her Byakugan as red chakra flooded the room, nearly blinding her in the process. Opening her eyes, she looked up at the absolutely massive cloud of thick, red chakra—no, youki—that floated around the top of the room. She had no time to react as part of it dove down to slam into the blond beneath her, the pillar of chakra expanding and forcing her down across the boy in the process. Hinata screamed, as the feeling of her chakra coils burning out and her skin beginning to burn off assaulted her mind.

Below the girl, red-slitted eyes snapped open. **The girl,** the fox mused in annoyance as it poured itself back into the blond. Feeling the compulsion to heed its recently made oath, the fox thought for a moment before a smirk not his own crossed Naruto's features and the boy's body—under control of the fox for the moment—grabbed Hinata's body to pull roughly against his own. The boy's mouth opened and elongated teeth sank into the junction between shoulder and neck as the fox forcibly attuned her body to its chakra to keep her from burning down to nothing, as it was also doing for the brat. If doing so the way it had just so happened to irritate the blond in the process, then that was just icing on top of the cake.

That task completed, the demon concentrated on finding and waking the blond annoyance. Its attention diverted elsewhere, it failed to notice that it was still only halfway inside the boy. That changed as it felt something tear as, inside the seal room the bars surrounding the seal buckled and gave way, parts of them breaking away from the rest and disappearing. The fox had just enough time to watch through Naruto's eyes as nearly half of its chakra mass ripped itself violently away from the rest before the feeling of being ripped asunder at its very core sent the demon into what passed as unconsciousness. The mass of chakra swirled around the top of the cave for a moment before slamming into and through the roof and streaking off across the sky—confusing those gathered outside.

Turning his attention back to the gathered group of ninja, Itachi regarded them for a moment before nodding slightly to himself. It had only been a minute or so since the obvious Hyuuga had run past him and into the cave. Perhaps she had found a way to revive the blond. In either case, there was no point in sticking around. The extraction had somehow failed and, despite his curiosity over the blond, Itachi felt it unwise to fight a pointless battle—especially when the Sannin and her group were relatively fresh while himself and Kisame had been trying to extract the Kyuubi from Naruto for the past few days and were low on chakra. "Kisame, we're done here."

"What makes you think we're going to just let you leave?" Anko growled, beginning to seal.

"You don't have a choice," Kisame smirked, forming a seal of his own before his body went slack and crumpled to the ground. Beside him, Itachi had done likewise.

"It's not them," Tsunade confirmed a moment later, after checking over the bodies. With that, the group quickly made their way into the cave.

"What the hell?" Anko murmured quietly, looking the pair over.

"We'll worry about it later," Shizune cut her off, checking over Hinata as Tsunade did the same for Naruto. Finding both to be alive and intact, each of the medics lifted up one of the two smaller ninja—Tsunade cradling Naruto's limp form in her arms and Shizune arranging Hinata on her back.

"Where are we going?" Tenten asked, unable to take her eyes off the pair. Neither Tsunade nor Shizune answered as Tsunade took the lead, running vaguely in the direction of Otafuku Gai.

* * *

Burning red chakra streaked out of the sky before slamming down into the ground, leaving a small crater and burning the surrounding plant life to ash. As the rain that had hung over the area for the last several days continued, the chakra swirled for a moment before contracting. Sense of self returned first—memory of having a living, breathing body. Memory became unconscious will and will became reality. It—no, she—nearly choked as lungs expanded and contracted for the first time. Slitted green eyes burned in the dim light of day as they focused on things nearby. The scorched ground, plants further out that had survived, the sky, trees, three forms leaving the tree-line and approaching.

"This is about where that light came down," sharp ears set atop a long, red head of hair picked up from the edge of the forest as they swiveled and locked on to the source of the noise.

"Hey, what's that?" a second voice asked, gesturing in her direction.

"It's a _girl_," a third voice answered as the trio approached. "And she's naked."

"Think she's what came down?" asked the first voice, gesturing towards the circle of burned out grass.

The third shook his head. "Nah. If anything, I'd say it hit near her. Though I don't have a fucking clue how she would have survived. Could have just been a near-miss. Either way, doesn't matter," he shrugged off the other's question before turning to smile down at her. It was not a nice smile, in fact it made her hackles rise just looking at it. "Want to have some fun with her?"

She ignored them for a moment as a vague pain emanated from around the area of her stomach. A moment later, she recognized the feeling as hunger when her stomach growled. An inhalation through her nose caused her mouth to water. A memory, or perhaps an instinct, not her own surfaced of a wonderful taste that accompanied that particular smell. Looking back up, she found that the one with the smile was reaching towards her. The smell in question seemed to come from them. Memories she couldn't identify as her own of the last ten years swirled and settled into place as light glinted off a piece of metal on this one's head—a musical note engraved in it. These men were enemies—and not very bright ones at that. Instinct honed by years of training took over, her hand lashing out and snapping the first one's head around to face the opposite direction with a sharp crack and sending the would-be assailant sprawling chest-down into the mud—very obviously no longer among the living. Had she had more presence of mind she would have wondered at that since, while she had indeed punched the man as hard as she could, she had never gotten that result before. As it was, she paid it no attention.

Seeing their comrade downed so quickly, the other two attempted to flee. Those more recent memories came into sharper focus, along with an older set that she could identify as her own. As the older set congealed, the thought skittered across her mind that the experience was not unlike what happened when one used kage bunshin for a prolonged period of time and had to reconcile multiple sets of memory. Things learned but not understood in the newer set of memories—once focused through the older, far more experienced set—suddenly made sense.

Red chakra—_'Youki.'_—built around her almost visibly momentarily and she moved, intercepting the closest attempting to flee. Youki _pulsed_ and her hand flashed out, caving his head in with an ungodly amount of force as the side of his head opposite the impact side exploded outward into a red mist of flesh, bone fragments, and pink brain matter as the body went flying. She hadn't even dropped out of the bastardized shunshin/kawarimi to attack and she quickly caught up to the third. Instinct—her admittedly scattered thought processes identified as not her own—again kicked in as she slammed into his back, sending him skidding along the ground face-first. She ignored his pleas even as she brought her mouth down and attempted to wrap it around his neck. Failing that attempt as she found her jaws unable to open wide enough, she growled in frustration before crushing it in her hand. The part of her mind that was human shied away from what took place next but the side that she knew was not her own and seemed somehow attached to the newer set of memory enjoyed itself immensely as she dug into her first meal in what felt like forever.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Next chapter won't be out for a while as it's giving me problems. Sorry in advance for the delay.

Yeah, before you say anything I know not having Team Hokage actually throw down against Itachi and Kisame was kind of cheap, but I figure by Itachi's reasoning 1.) they're already finished with the extraction—even if it failed—so there's no point, 2.) they're tired after attempting to extract it so it wouldn't be much fun anyway, and 3.) they're using false bodies again and leaving before the fight could even get started would irritate Tsunade and amuse Kisame—which is a win on both counts.

The end of this chapter could have gone one of two ways. One of those would have been more amusing at the moment, while the other would have eventually lead to a similar outcome later but would be harder to pull off. The easy option has all the necessary plot points already covered for it to work while Saiori thought the hard option didn't have enough 'foreplay.' And while I agree with him on not having enough lead-in, I decided not to take the easy way out. Of course, the _easiest_ way out would be not to use it at all, but I wanted to so... shrug We'll see where it goes from here.


	21. Good News Bad Signs

**The Missing Hokage**

**21: Good News, Bad Signs**

* * *

Naruto yawned as the morning sun peeked through the tree-tops overhead. A warmth and a familiar smell nearby alerted him to Hinata's presence. An uncomfortable tingling sensation and a pressure from somewhere just above the cleft of his ass caused him to frown in annoyance and roll onto his side in an effort to get some relief. It felt like something had fallen asleep during the night from loss of circulation. The tingle quickly subsided, but the pressure remained. A insistent reminder from his bladder convinced him that it was time to go find some relief.

Standing quickly, the boy stumbled across the camp with one eye slitted open just enough to see. He idly wondered just what time it was, since it seemed far brighter than what his biological clock told him it should be for what time it assumed it was. Finding a good spot just out of the line of sight of the camp, he unzipped his fly and went about relieving himself. His open pants provided some relief for the odd pressure he was feeling from behind. Oddly, it reminded the boy of the same sensation of his pants being too tight around his groin any time he had to go or it otherwise got excited over something.

Finished, Naruto zipped himself back up and started back towards camp. His eyes narrowed in annoyance as the pressure against whatever it was had returned to being uncomfortable. In his annoyance, he unconsciously willed it to go away. Something twitching against his leg sent the blond into a panic as he fell to the ground and quickly shed his pants, visions of Anko playing a prank on him with her snakes dancing through his mind. Pulling his pants off and shaking them out revealed no reptiles, thankfully. Naruto sighed in relief. It was about that time he felt something warm and hairy brush his upper left leg. Turning around, he looked around for the culprit. Finding nothing, he narrowed his eyes in annoyance. Well, at least he didn't feel quite so uncomfortable any more.

With a yawn, the boy attempted to put his pants back on again. Right leg in, he began stuffing his left leg into his pants. Halfway to his knee, something fuzzy brushed against his hand and twitched. Naruto fell onto his ass and rolled along the ground, grabbing at whatever it was that had snuck into his shorts and pants. Hands wrapped firmly around it, he pulled it around to glare down on it. 'It' turned out to be a long, red-furred tail. Thinking it was either a prank by Anko—oh, he was going to get her good for this later—or an animal had crawled into his pants in the middle of the night and latched onto his ass, Naruto gave the tail a yank. Yelping in pain, he dropped it. "What the hell?" he whimpered, hands going back to rub his sore back-side. He blinked at what he found there. Inside his boxers, bent at an uncomfortable angle, an actual tail protruded from where the tail-bone normally terminated in a human.

Reaching back into his boxers, Naruto grabbed the appendage and pulled it out from where it was stuffed down the left leg of his shorts and over the top of the fabric, leaving the shorts to bunch up under where tail joined body. He gave it a careful squeeze and narrowed his eyes when he could feel the warmth and pressure of his hands through the fur around the appendage. _'This is way beyond anything Anko could do,'_ the boy mused. _'Which means... it's real.' _Bringing his hands together into the sign for Kage Bunshin, Naruto created a single clone. In his excitement, he failed to notice that it took more effort to produce the clone than it should have. "How bad is it?" the boy asked of his copy.

The clone circled the boy, both getting a good look at their current situation. "Well, it could be worse," the clone began. Seeing the questioning look from the original, the clone elaborated. "You could have paws," the clone snickered before dispersing.

"Ah, crap," the boy groaned, even as he made a conscious attempt to move his new fuzzy appendage. The tail responded, twitching this way and that. A little concentration and he had it around the side of his right leg and in front of him where he could get a good look at it without holding it with his hands. Not sure whether to be horrified at what the fox had done to him—for that was the only explanation he could come up with—or amused at the prank potential, Naruto decided to stop playing with himself and put it back in his pants. Fishing out a kunai, he quickly cut a hole in the back of the pants and boxers. An attempt to use a relatively simple exercise to stitch off the loose ends to keep them from fraying caused the blond to pause when nothing happened. A few more tests of various other techniques met with the same result. His chakra control was, to put it simply, shot all to shit. Sure, he could feel more of the stuff—far more than he had access to normally actually, closer to what he would have in the one-tailed state—but whatever the fox had done to expand his reserves had ruined what precious little control he had. And he had finally been coming to grips with his already massive stores before this mess happened.

Pulling his clothes back on and sliding his new appendage through the new hole in his pants, Naruto glared at empty air. _'Kyuubi!'_ he mentally yelled. When he got no response from the fox in question, he closed his eyes and concentrated. He'd never really tried much to get to the fox, but when he opened his eyes again he found himself in front of a pair of familiar gates. Well, mostly familiar. It looked like something had ripped half the metal forming the gates away starting at the seal in the center and moving outward in a spiral pattern. Looking past the wrecked gates, Naruto found the fox laying some distance away. "Hey, get up!"

When the fox didn't even acknowledge his presence, Naruto began rattling the bars of the cage. "I said wake up, you stupid fox! What the hell did you do to me?!" Despite his demands, the fox did not so much as move. Knowing it was probably a stupid move but deciding to risk it anyway, Naruto slipped between a pair of the bars and made his way quickly and quietly into the cage. He made his way over to the downed fox and gave it a swift kick on the back of its gigantic head. It didn't even twitch. Shrugging, the boy gave the fox a quick once-over from where he stood. Something really didn't seem right. While still massive, the fox didn't seem nearly as large as it had every other time the boy had been forced to deal with it. "Have you lost weight?" he cracked, snickering. When even that drew no response, the boy decided he wouldn't be getting anything out of big, dumb, and fluffy any time soon.

Naruto's eyes opened and he looked around for a moment before finding the path back towards their camp. _'Last thing I remember is the fox bitching about Akatsuki and some kind of deal,'_ he mused, the memory hazy and indistinct. Padding silently back into camp, Naruto wondered what else the fox had screwed with while he was out. His answer came in the form of perhaps the cutest sight he had ever seen. Hinata, dressed in only a short-sleeved shirt and a pair of what looked like his own frog boxers, turned in a quick circle just above the sleeping bag they had been sharing. Her hands were extended and her tongue peeked out from one corner of her lips as she attempted to catch something long and the same shade as her hair save for a bit of white at its tip trailing out one leg of her shorts. Three rotations later, the girl had in her hands an appendage similar to his own—at the cost of tangling her legs in the sleeping bag and falling down into it on her back. It twitched idly in her hands, apparently wanting to be released.

Naruto blinked when one of the girl's ears twitched and swiveled his direction. He blinked again when he realized that it was not a human ear and it was situated atop her head—similar to the set atop his own head, except that all of his... accessories seemed to be mostly deep red in color save for their tips. She turned her head to regard him momentarily before turning back to the tail in her grasp. "Good morning, Naruto-kun," she greeted. A moment later, her head jerked up to regard the blond. A second after that, a squeal of "Cute!" preceded an impact to his chest that knocked him off his feet and sent the pair of them tumbling into someone's sleeping bag, the girl having traversed the distance between them faster than Naruto's eyes could track.

Motion against his back announced the bag's owner waking, followed by a pair of feminine arms wrapping around him from behind in a death grip. "Naruto!" Shizune's yell caused the boy to flinch and he felt an odd sensation atop his head as his own set of ears flattened themselves against his head unconsciously in an effort not to go deaf. His thoughts were interrupted a second later when Hinata's lips latched onto his own. The smaller girl giggled when she moved her face and Naruto felt something brushing against his face oddly.

Their kiss was interrupted a moment later when Shizune turned the blond away from Hinata. Her face held a mixture of worry, relief, and joy as she said, "Naruto... don't ever worry us like that again, ok?" The boy's eyes widened when she darted forward and pressed a quick kiss against his lips. She pulled back a moment later, giggling and rubbing at her face. "Those really tickle," she murmured, reaching out and tweaking something sticking out from the side of the boy's face. A look over towards Hinata showed a set of three long, thin whiskers where Naruto's own whisper marks had once been.

As Hinata leaned forward and went back to showing her affection for her favorite blond, a voice from behind them called, "Well, since everyone seems to be up, why don't you tell us what happened?"

Naruto shifted just enough to regard Tsunade and shrug, not breaking the kiss he had with Hinata. "As fun as this is to watch, what's with the fuzzy bits?" Anko's voice asked from somewhere out of Naruto's line of sight.

Naruto felt Hinata sigh softly in irritation—her breath tickling the long whiskers against his own face—as she leaned back to let him answer. "Dunno," Naruto answered, willing his tail to wave at the special jonin in question once he spotted her. "I thought it was a prank you were pulling at first."

Anko snickered, smirking. "If I could do something like that, there are lots of other people I'd have done that to back in Konoha."

"What do they feel like?" Haku asked, moving forward to inspect the ears atop the blond's head.

"Real," the boy answered, squirming away from the older boy's fingers as they attempted to latch on to one of his new ears. A moment of thought had him bringing his hands up to check for his original set of ears. Finding them, he narrowed his eyes in annoyance at the fox. "Four?"

Beside him, Hinata was undergoing much the same treatment from Shizune and Tenten—Shizune inspecting her ears and Tenten idly stroking her tail. The ex-Hyuuga's eyes were half-lidded in what looked to be nearly feline bliss. Medical jutsu activating over her head brought her attention back to Shizune. "I've never seen anything like it," the Sannin's first apprentice murmured.

"How could something like this happen?" Tenten asked, seeing that no one save for her had reacted with anything more than surprise at their teammates and friends suddenly growing new appendages. "And what was that red chakra that went flying from the cave like a bat out of hell? Better yet, why the hell would S-Ranked missing nin be after Naruto in the first place?"

Tsunade narrowed her eyes at the younger blond, even as she began sealing for her own diagnostic jutsu. "You haven't told her?"

"I was working on it," the boy murmured quietly, rubbing at the back of his head.

"Well, there's not much point in trying to hide it now," Tsunade pointed out.

Anko snickered. "Yeah, someone did kind of let the fox out of the bag..."

Tenten glared at the older kunoichi in annoyance. "Ok, seriously. What the hell is going on?"

"Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked, drawing the boy's attention. Seeing her questioning look, he nodded minutely. Nodding herself, she bit her lip in thought for a moment before turning her head up to regard the bun-haired girl. "Do you know when Naruto-kun's birthday is?"

"Yeah, but what..." Tenten started, then looked between the girl at her feet and the blond.

"How old is Naruto-kun?"

'Thirteen," Tenten answered quietly. It had been there, all along. The whisker marks, the way he acted, the red chakra and the massive killing intent that came with it, and now this... "But Naruto couldn't possibly be that."

Hinata nodded. "He isn't. He is as much Kyuubi as a scroll is the thing you seal into it."

"And all of you knew?" Tenten asked, looking at the others. Seeing everyone else nod, she narrowed her eyes. "Even you?" she asked of Haku.

"He used its power to defeat me, the last time we fought."

"Everyone in Konoha knows don't they, except for the people our age?" Tenten asked of Tsunade, who nodded even as she frowned at whatever her jutsu was telling her. "It explains a lot."

"You're not mad?" Naruto asked upon hearing the tone in the slightly older girl's voice.

Tenten shook her head. "No. Why would I be? It's your secret to tell or keep as you see fit. I mean, it's not like _you_ killed all those people."

"Thanks," the blond boy said quietly.

Tsunade cut her medical jutsu off and sighed, drawing their attention. "Well, I've got some good news and some bad news."

"Good news first!" Naruto all but yelled.

The Sannin rolled her eyes. "The good news is you aren't going to die."

"How is that good?!" Naruto yelled. Blinking, he clarified. "Ok, aside from the obvious answer to that one... What I mean is, why would I die in the first place?"

"That's the bad news," Tsunade smirked. "Congratulations, you are now the proud owner of a first-generation kekkei genkai. Well, both of you are, I'm guessing."

Anko blinked. "Wait. What?" She was echoed eerily by Naruto.

"The test confirms it's a bloodline," Tsunade answered. "Don't know the odds of it being inheritable, but I'd be willing to guess they're pretty good. Especially if the offspring's parents were both bearers of the bloodline."

"Inheritable?" Naruto asked.

Shizune giggled at the look on the boy's face. "If you have children, they could share the same traits."

"Aside from the obvious physical changes, what else is different?" Haku asked. He knew that kekkei genkai were shunned in some places, and to have one with visible outward signs such as Naruto's would mean there wouldn't be much chance of hiding it for very long.

Tsunade shrugged, sending a questioning look towards Naruto and Hinata. "Chakra control is worse than ever," the boy answered.

Frowning, Tsunade placed her hand over Naruto's. "Channel chakra into your hand," she ordered. She released him after a moment. "Throughput and overall chakra stores are greater," she surmised. "Guess it's back to basic chakra exercises for you until you get back up to something approaching normal."

"But I can fix it, right?"

The Sannin nodded. "Yeah, probably. It's just going to take a lot of work. Essentially, you're building back up from near scratch."

As the boy groaned in annoyance, Hinata went about checking her own control and reserves. "My control is down, but not nearly as bad as Naruto-kun's," the girl answered Tsunade's unspoken question.

"What now?" Tenten asked, regarding the pair. "We can't take missions again until they get their control back to normal, right?"

Tsunade nodded. "We'll head back to Otafuku Gai for now." She stood up straight and stretched. "Start breaking camp, we leave when we're finished. Can you summon?" she asked of Naruto.

Shrugging, Naruto bit his thumb and began sealing. Slapping his hands down onto the ground produced a small cloud of chakra and smoke. When it cleared, Naruto winced. "Tadpole," the boy grumbled. "Shit."

"Anko, Shizune, we'll summon when we're ready to go. I'd like to get back soon," the Sannin ordered.

As the group went about clearing the camp, a new problem quickly reared its head as both Naruto and Hinata occasionally found themselves stumbling or over-extending to grab something. "It looks like you've both been through a small growth spurt all at once," Shizune pointed out.

"In other words, my taijutsu is back to being crappy too," Naruto grumbled, getting a nod from Shizune and Tsunade. "I'm going to kill that stupid fox."

"It say why it did this?" Anko asked, sealing away her sleeping bag and pocketing the scroll.

Naruto shook his head. "No. It's either asleep or ignoring me."

"It may be unable to answer," Tsunade supplied. "We saw a bunch of its chakra leave the cave just before Itachi and Kisame decided to leave."

"Wait, how can it be out there and in here at the same time?" the boy asked, getting shrugs in answer. "Crap," he grumbled as they finished striking camp and the trio of designated kunoichi summoned a set of frogs. Shizune mounted one with Naruto, Anko one with Tenten, and Tsunade one with Haku and Hinata.

* * *

Eyes cracked open momentarily before immediately clamping shut again as light bored into them. Movement at her side drew her attention, followed by a familiar voice. "You're awake?"

Face scrunched up in irritation, the girl nodded. "Yeah. Why do I feel like I've got the worst hangover ever?"

The blurry form she could make out through partly slitted eyes shrugged. "Could be because you collapsed."

"How long was I out for?" Naruko asked, sitting up as her eyes slowly adjusted.

Beside her, Temari reached out a hand to steady the smaller blonde. "About three days. I was almost to the point of trying to find a medic when a message showed up from your friends saying Naruto had been captured. That was about the middle of the second day."

Biting her lip in thought, Naruko concentrated. _'Ah, that's why it feels like someone took a sledgehammer to my brain. All those kage bunshin at once really, really hurt. And then there's the thing that caused them all to disperse. But why am I still here?'_ she wondered. Not that she was complaining in the least. "Hmm?" she asked, seeing Temari's annoyed look. "Sorry, wasn't paying attention."

Temari rolled her eyes. "Never mind," she murmured.

Seeing the look on the older blonde's face, Naruko grinned. "Awe, you were worried about me!"

"Shut up," the Suna kunoichi grumbled. Naruko noticed that she did not deny the claim. After a moment, she asked, "So what the hell happened?"

The shorter girl shrugged, stumbling out of her futon into an upright position. She noticed that one of Temari's hands had remained against her back to steady her. Naruko shrugged in answer. "Don't know. Probably happened because I'm connected to Naruto," she answered truthfully. She just neglected to mention that she was as connected to the boy as his own shadow—fairly literally, in this case. "I'm about to starve."

Hearing a faint growl come from the direction of the shorter blonde's stomach, Temari again rolled her eyes. "When aren't you? I suppose I can let it slide this time, since you've got a good excuse," she said, ignoring the fact that it was her stomach that had stood up and declared its need for food.

Naruko shot the older girl a foxy grin. "So, you're going to make me food?"

Temari snorted at the unintended double entendre. "Possibly," she answered, deciding to be a little vague herself for once.

"Where's Isaribi?" Naruko asked as they entered the kitchen and she took a seat as Temari began to move around the kitchen. Naruko was surprised when the older girl narrowed her eyes in annoyance.

"Work," she grumbled, beginning to pull out ingredients for something simple.

"What's the matter?"

The older blonde sighed as she cracked an egg into a bowl and began mixing up batter. "She's a bitch," she answered, looking for a whisk. Seeing Naruko's questioning look, she elaborated. "She wasn't even worried about you. Naruto and the others, sure, but barely even bothered to see if you were ok or not."

Naruko shrugged. "It's nothing personal. She just likes Naruto better," she answered. It was true, in a sense. The girl had no reason to fret over a clone when the original was in danger. And with that thought in mind, she had to wonder just what had happened to the original. Obviously he was fine now, but what had happened to force the clones and herself to react so violently? She concentrated and began the task of sorting through the memories of all the clones that had dispersed, starting with the most recent common event—the dispersal itself—and moving backwards towards the next most recent common event—their creation.

Temari sent the younger blonde a slightly worried look as she noticed the girl zoning out at the table. "You ok over there?"

"Yeah," Naruko answered absently. After a moment, she grinned and elaborated, "Trying to get my head sorted." Several seconds later, she burst out laughing before covering her mouth, a large grin plastered across her face as the memory of a recent Naruto-clone came to the forefront of her mind. _'Where did the foxy-bits come from,'_ she wondered, immediately seeing the possibly prank-potential should they ever return to Konoha.

Shrugging off the odd answer and ignoring the even more odd sudden outburst of laughter, Temari quickly cut off the burners on the stove and filled a pair of plates before setting them down on the table and taking a seat. "Eat," she ordered when she noticed the other girl was still distracted.

"Yes ma'am!" Naruko snickered, digging into her food. Halfway into her meal, she said, "I should run into town and let Dane know we're ok but we're going to need to take a break for a while."

"Why's that?" Temari asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, Naruto's not here to make any new clones and I'm almost afraid to make any of my own," she answered. After all, if she did make a clone and it popped, the plan would be ruined.

Nodding at the answer, Temari suggested, "Why not use the thing you used to summon that clone of Hinata?"

"Because I don't think it's a good idea at the moment," the girl answered. "Naruto might still be out or otherwise incapacitated and a clone in that state would be pretty useless." Besides that, she didn't want to spoil the surprise of Temari seeing Naruto's new look when Team Hokage returned.

Temari nodded. "I'll go with you then."

"Oh?" the smaller girl grinned. "Worried about me?"

"Shut up."

Remembering something she had read in one of the various pink manga she used to pass time in Dane's shop, she asked, "Is that some tsundere?"

"I'll kill you," the older blonde glared, attempting and failing to hide her embarrassed blush, along with unintentionally answering the younger girl's question.

Naruko shot the girl a foxy grin. "Careful Temari-chan, you're starting to sound like your little brother."

After cleaning up after breakfast, the pair of girls made their way from Team Hokage's residence and into town—Naruko not questioning why Temari was actually wearing her battle fan for the first time outside of her training since she had come to Otafuku Gai. The bell over the door to Dane's shop chimed, announcing their presence to the brown-haired girl standing at the counter. Looking up from a familiar pink-covered manga, Isaribi waved at the two. "He in the back?" Naruko asked, getting a nod in answer.

"Yeah, he's working on a rush job. So... Naruto is ok?" Isaribi asked. Seeing the smaller blonde nod, she sighed in relief. "That's good."

"Well, he's alive anyway. Don't know about 'ok' though," Naruko clarified as she made her way towards the door to Dane's work room. Opening the door, she poked her head in. "Yo."

Looking up from his work, the retired ninja turned his attention towards the girl, raising an inquiring eyebrow. "What happened?"

The blonde shrugged. "I have an idea," she answered simply. "Need some time off for a while, until Naruto gets back at least."

"That's fine," the ex-shinobi nodded. "The clones finished up the rest of your order before they popped, so I've only got the regular load to deal with for a while. It's nothing that needs that many hands and since your friend is watching the counter, I can concentrate on this."

"Thanks, boss," the girl called, closing the door and turning back towards Temari and Isaribi—the pair obviously doing everything in their power to ignore each other without actually letting the other know that's exactly what they were doing. "So, what now?"

Temari shrugged as the pair left the store, Naruko tossing a wave in Isaribi's general direction and getting a distracted reply from the girl in return. Once they were out on the street, Temari growled, "See? The bitch didn't even ask how you were doing."

"I told you, it's fine," Naruko rolled her eyes. "Let's go find something to do."

"Are you sure you're up for—"

"I'll be fine," the younger blonde waved off the elder's concerns, leading them into the entertainment district.

Seeing the younger girl's apparent destination, Temari groaned. "Not that place again."

"What?" Naruko asked, grinning. "You didn't complain last time we were here."

"Last time we were here, I got drunk off my ass," the Suna kunoichi deadpanned. "I don't want a repeat of that hangover."

"Pfft, wuss," the younger blonde snorted.

Narrowing her eyes, Temari grabbed the younger girl's arm and proceeded to drag her forcibly into the karaoke bar they had been in last time. "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you," she murmured, already planning to limit her intake tonight for another reason aside from the one she'd given. She would never admit it, but after what had happened she was feeling a little overprotective of the younger blonde—thus the fan and not wanting to be too inebriated to fight should there be a need to. Beyond that though, she didn't quite trust herself to keep her promise to Hinata at the moment and she knew that adding alcohol to the equation would only make that more difficult.

Several hours later, Temari sighed as she shifted the smaller blonde's dead weight into a more comfortable position on her back, grumbling in annoyance as the battle fan slung horizontally under her right arm shifted and tightened the strap holding it up against the left side of her shoulder and neck. "I warned you." On her back, Naruko snored softly before going quiet again. Apparently, despite her words, the younger girl was not completely recovered and had passed out on the walk back home. A feeling of wet warmth against her back caused Temari to narrow her eyes in question before the heat quickly cooled and she realized that Naruko had begun to drool. And it had soaked straight through her shirt. "Just great," the older blond murmured.

Sighting Team Hokage's residence, she nearly sighed in relief and quickened her pace up to the house. Opening the door, she slipped inside and closed it behind them before glaring at the stairs that would lead up to the younger blonde's bedroom. "You so owe me for this," she groaned before marching unsteadily up the stairs and down the hall to Naruko's room. Toeing the door open, she carefully dropped the younger blonde onto her futon before straightening and popping her back. She glanced between the younger blonde on the futon and the door for a moment, trying to decide whether it would be worth the effort to go shower before bed.

Laziness won out as she slung her fan off and propped it up in the corner of Naruko's room before making her way over to the door and sliding it closed. The lock turned into place with a soft click before the Suna kunoichi turned back towards the younger blonde and padded over to the futon, kicking off her sandals along the way. Kneeling, she swiftly pulled the covers out from under the younger girl before carefully undressing her. Not that it probably would have mattered if she was a little rough, since Naruko seemed to be dead to the world at the moment if the trail of drool and the occasional snore escaping her mouth were any clue. Rolling the younger blonde to one side of the futon, Temari undressed and slipped in beside the girl, pulling the sheets up over the both of them and spooning up behind the shorter kunoichi. The words she wanted to say threatened to slip out but the older blonde clamped down viciously on the impulse. _'It can wait.'_

* * *

As night began to set, Team Hokage called for a break near a small lake. After dismissing the summoned toads, the group quickly set up dividing chores and night watch shifts amongst themselves. "Naruto-kun," Shizune called to the distracted blond as the group dispersed to begin setting up camp. "You're bathing first."

"Thanks, Shizune-chan," Naruto grinned, heading through the woods towards the lake. Clearing a small spot under an overhanging tree along the bank, Naruto gathered enough scattered limbs and leaves to start a small fire. Stripping, he waded waist-deep into the cold water and set about washing his clothes the old fashioned way. When he finished scrubbing them off, he waded back out of the water and hung his clothes over the fire to dry since he couldn't just use his chakra to pull the water out of them. That done, he waded deeper into the water and quickly scrubbed himself clean.

"This really sucks," the blond murmured, relaxing back into the cold water to float and watch the quickly darkening sky. He debated whether or not to go back to trying to sort out the myriad of memories he had received from the numerous clones that had popped, as he had been doing for most of the ride to where they were currently camping for the night. After a moment of thought, he decided it would probably be best to start again tomorrow. That out of the way, he focused on one of his more immediate problems. Beneath the water, his new tail twitched back and forth in a sign of his agitation.

_'Should I try tree climbing or something else first?'_ the boy wondered, attempting to plan out some kind of training schedule to bring his chakra control back up to speed. He could, and would, be using kage bunshin to augment the pace of his training but they only helped so much—and even less now, since without the necessary control he would be wasting huge amounts of chakra on just making a few. And without kage bunshin to aid him, relearning basic chakra control was going to come along at a snail's pace. "Shit!" the boy cursed loudly, finally giving in to the mounting frustration he had been feeling all day. In his frustration, he had released the grip on the chakra he had unconsciously been molding as he'd thought about it. The force of the release was enough to part the water under the boy, sending him several feet under before the water closed around him.

In the camp, several of the members of Team Hokage perked up warily at hearing the boy's curse, several of them reaching for weapons upon feeling the release of chakra. Hinata, her new ears cocked towards where the noise had originated from and her Byakugan active, shook her head in answer to the unspoken question coming from the rest of the group. "Naruto-kun is fine," she answered quietly, though her dojutsu stayed active both to keep an eye on the boy and because she had noticed a few changes in her enhanced eyesight the moment she had activated the technique. She could now see things far more clearly, and her range seemed to have expanded as well—and both of these were with chakra control inferior to that which she'd had before the changes had taken place, leaving her to wonder how much the technique would improve as she regained her control.

In the lake, Naruto spluttered as he came up for air. His breathing quickly slowing, the boy glared down at the water. "What the hell?" the boy murmured. Stretching out his chakra, he could _feel_ the water around his body. Not just feel the sensation of water against his skin, but feel everything in the water around him for as far as the chakra extended. He grinned as several ideas came to mind. He would be working with water first once they got back to Otafuku Gai, it seemed. His good spirits restored, the blond quickly left the water and dried off as best he could before dressing in his mostly-dry clothes. He fed the small fire for whoever bathed next before heading back towards the camp. "I'm done," he called, sitting down and accepting a bowl from Hinata.

"Feeling better?" the girl asked, standing as she prepared to take to the lake next, along with Tenten. The girls had decided that, aside from Naruto, they would go in groups—save for Haku, who had opted to go last and then immediately go on watch—with Hinata and Tenten sharing the lake first and then the older trio of kunoichi.

"Lots," Naruto answered, grinning up at the girl as she walked by—her tail playfully swatting at the side of his head.

Tenten yawned as she followed behind Hinata, finding the girl already stripping down and setting about washing her clothes. The bun-haired girl followed the ex-Hyuuga's example, shivering slightly as she stepped into the cold water. She regarded the shorter girl from the corner of her eyes as she worked, debating whether or not to ask the question that had been on all of their minds for some time now. "What happened in there?" she asked, finally giving in to curiosity.

"The cave?" Hinata asked, getting a nod. She hummed as she thought about how to answer that question. She remembered pretty much everything about the encounter—trying and failing to revive Naruto, the statue appearing out of nowhere, the central eye of the statue breaking and the mass of red chakra pouring out of it, that same cloud of chakra diving into the blond and slamming into and through her at the same time... and then nothing as she assumed she had blacked out at some point. Standing, she made her way over to the fire Naruto had left to hang up her clothes to dry. "I don't want to talk about it right now," she answered quietly.

"Sorry," Tenten apologized, mimicking the smaller girl's actions before slipping back into the lake. Glancing over, she noticed that the veins around Hinata's eyes were raised—a sure sign of Byakugan use. It was then she realized that the girl had never deactivated the bloodline. "I thought it hurt your eyes if you used it too long," she pointed out, drawing Hinata's attention.

The girl in question nodded. "It did," she answered. "Not any more."

"So, what... your eyes are better now too?"

"Yes," Hinata nodded. "My night vision is much improved, everything is more detailed, I have a larger range, and I can see chakra more clearly than ever."

Tenten snorted. "Sounds nice. Wonder what else it does for you," she mused aloud.

"Mm?" the ex-Hyuuga hummed in question.

"Well, for instance," Tenten started, maneuvering behind the shorter girl to wash her back, one hand reaching up and tweaked one of the new set of ears. "How good are these? Do you hear out of all of your ears, or just the new ones?"

"All of them," Hinata answered. "The new set are very sensitive. I can pick up things further away and at different pitches than I could before."

"And what about the tail? Is it just for decoration or can you grasp things with it, channel chakra through it?" Tenten asked. She had at least one answer a moment later when she felt something wet and furry slip between her legs and wrap around her left knee before Hinata shifted to assist her tail in its tug, pulling Tenten's leg out from under her and sending her splashing backwards into the water. Glaring as she came up for air and saw the ex-Hyuuga grinning down at her, the bun-haired girl wiped the water out of her eyes and pushed her hair back out of her face. "Real cute."

"I thought so," Hinata agreed. "Your turn," she said, pushing on Tenten's shoulders until she had the taller girl's back to her.

Huffing out a sigh of irritation, Tenten decided to let that one pass and continued on with her line of questioning. "What about the whiskers? Are they decoration or do they work like they do on other animals?"

"How are they supposed to work?"

"They're supposed to pick up air currents and stuff," Tenten supplied.

Hinata shrugged. "I'm not sure. I've been ignoring them for the most part, since they've been... twitching since I woke up."

Nodding, the bun-haired girl asked, "Have you noticed any other changes, aside from an increase in chakra and the growth spurt?"

"Nothing really stands out," Hinata answered after a moment of contemplation. "Why are you so interested?"

"Eh?" Tenten blushed slightly at the question, turning around to face the smaller girl. Biting her lower lip for a moment, she decided to answer honestly. "I suppose I'm kind of jealous. I mean, you already had one cool bloodline and now this on top of it? I'm pretty much stuck with my weapons, a few sealing techniques, and whatever medical jutsu Tsunade-sama decides to teach me. Well, and a few summons. Pretty much everyone with a kekkai genkai has a natural advantage over everyone else, improving your chances of coming back from any given mission." Tenten sighed and rolled her eyes before smiling across to Hinata. "Sorry, I'm just kind of frustrated right now."

"I understand," Hinata nodded. After a moment, a small foxy grin crossed her face. "You know, if you decided to join us we would be willing to share more," she bribed.

"Don't think the thought hasn't crossed my mind," Tenten admitted, laughing quietly.

"What's stopping you?"

The bun-haired girl shrugged before asking, "I thought you guys said you wouldn't try to get me to join up."

The ex-Hyuuga nodded. "I'm not. I'm simply pointing out one of the benefits."

After a moment, Tenten asked, "So what else is included in that benefits package?"

Hinata shook her head. "You still haven't answered my question yet. What is keeping you attached to Konoha? Family? Friends?"

"You know I'm an orphan," Tenten pointed out. "Gai-sensei and Lee are the closest thing I have to family, really. And honestly, you're the first friend I've had since graduation. After that, I was either too busy with missions or the people I had thought were my friends always seemed to find excuses not to hang out whenever I had time off." She sighed before adding, "Really, the only thing keeping me there is loyalty and the fact that I don't really have anywhere else to go."

Eying the other girl thoughtfully, Hinata asked, "And if we offered you a home with us?"

Tenten did not miss the wording in that question. The ex-Hyuuga had not simply offered a place to stay and a roof over her head, but had offered a _home_—something she had lacked even in Konoha. That offer in and of itself was very tempting. The fact that she knew Hinata and the others could and would carry through on it. "There's still the other thing to worry about," she murmured.

Hinata shrugged before asking, "Given what you now know, do you really _want_ to be loyal to them?" That said, she stood and began making her way out of the lake towards her clothes, deciding to leave Tenten with that to think on as opposed to trying to push her harder. She wanted Tenten to come to them of her own free will, not feel forced or coerced into it.

"Ah, shit," the girl in question sighed, following Hinata from the lake. As she dressed quickly, she regarded the Konoha hitai-ate that still hung over the fire. Grabbing it, she pocketed it before making her way back into the camp. She had the feeling she would be spending most of the night thinking this over.

* * *

As night settled, she yawned and found a wide tree branch to spend the night on before laying down to rest from a full day of running. Now that she had a few moments to herself where she didn't have to either concentrate on running or wasn't nearly overwhelmed at the sights, sounds, and smells of all the _life_ around her she could actually sit down and work some things out. Idly scratching an itch on her side from the clothes she had... liberated—she firmly pushed the memory associated with that into a far corner of her mind to deal with later—she began to try to put some order to the mess she had upstairs, so to speak.

As she sorted through the amalgam of memory and feeling lumped in her head, something below her twitched before swinging up into her lap. Blinking, she looked down at something that was most definitely not familiar—a long, red-furred tail with a black tip rested in her lap, twitching occasionally as she slowly began to stroke it if only to keep her hands busy. Closing her eyes, she began the task of untangling the threads of memory she found there. Pulling on one brought more with it, along with the memory itself. This one was old, though not the oldest thing in the pile. No, _those_ she intended to avoid if she could.

With this one came the image of a school building, of sitting through a boring lecture that droned on in the background, yawning and putting her head down on a desk for a nap... Attached to it, a memory of receiving a hitai-ate and her sensei's smile... and tangled with that one, one of the newer memories that she could identify as not her own. Closed eyes opening to reveal a man with a scar running across his nose and a chuunin vest, missing his hitai-ate. With that came memory and feeling associated with that man. Carefully, she found the point where new and old intersected and slowly unwound them. That done, she set one to one side—labeled _mine_—and the other to another side—labeled _not mine_. And so it went well into the night until finally, the mass she had been working on lost enough integrity to start falling apart and breaking off into larger chunks, each mostly composed of things from one group or the other with only a few pieces of one stuck in the other.

As this happened, she came across the first of what would soon turn into many of the threads she had hoped she wouldn't find but had suspected of being there. It was rougher than the others and distinctly not a memory, more like an instinct or emotion. Pulling it away from the others as quickly as possible without breaking anything else she flung it towards a third side which was hastily labeled _do not touch_. Sighing in relief as the feeling associated with that strand left her, she went back to the task at hand.

It was late into the next morning when she opened her eyes, sitting up from the branch before dropping to the ground and heading towards the sound of a nearby stream. As she went about catching a breakfast/lunch of fish and making a fire to cook them over, she went over her handiwork. In her mind stood two piles—_not mine_ and _do not touch_. The one labeled as _mine_ had been the first she had worked on sorting through and what she suspected would be the easiest of the three. Everything there had been put back in its proper place, leaving her feeling that she had at least something of a grip back over her mind and sanity now.

As she ate, she turned towards the second largest pile of what had been three—the set of memory that felt the newest and would probably be the safest to handle, after her own. Her own memory and sense of self now mostly back in place, she began the task of reviewing the second set of memory. While she had untangled everything, she had took the time to put it in the rough order she assumed everything went in, so at least she wouldn't have to waste time guessing at where things went for the most part. All she really had to do was work on integrating the memory into her own without letting it overwhelm her own sense of self, which could be held off by keeping in mind that it should be like reabsorbing the memories of a kage bunshin.

She quickly found what she believed to be the beginning of this particular grouping of memory and winced at what she found. _Running through festively decorated streets, a large crowd of people following close behind, small objects landing all around and the occasional one making contact, ducking into an alley, the alley turning out to be a dead end, the crowd quickly closing ranks to block the only exit, shouts of 'demon,' threats, pain..._ She opened her eyes and forced her heartbeat to slow down. Already, she hated this. Unlike her own memory which she had simply perused to refamiliarize herself with it—after all, it was her own and had settled itself without much help from her—she actually had to deal with these the hard way. In this case, it meant living each and every one of them as though they were her own.

Sighing in resignation, she dove back in. _A hospital. An aged figure—'Hokage-jiji'—standing over a bed and speaking. Leaving the hospital with the Hokage. Ramen and the nice girl and old man at the stand. A small apartment—home—completely trashed, graffiti covering the walls and floor, 'bad child,' 'demon,' 'fox shit.' A bathroom, cleaning supplies under the sink getting low. A mirror above the sink. Blond hair, tan complexion, bright blue eyes, three faint lines that looked suspiciously like whisker marks over each cheek..._

She smiled. _'Cute,'_ she mused before turning back towards the memory. _Cleaning all day. Empty cabinets and refrigerator. More ramen. The feeling of being followed. Sharp pain. Another hospital room._ She was beginning to see a distinct pattern to these memories. Her anger only grew as she came across more of the same—what felt like years worth of nothing but animosity and violence, with the occasional snippet of kindness thrown in here and there.

And unnoticed during her distraction, the memory she neglected stirred at the anger she felt before latching onto it for all it was worth. Had she actually paid attention to it instead of trying to avoid it, she might have found the tiny spark of personality buried deep in the tangled mess she had left of it—might have realized the danger it could pose if left unchecked. She had not and by now, it was far too late. It would not be ignored, it would not be denied, and it most definitely would not be cast aside like refuse. Like any living being, it wanted to survive—even more so, as it had been ripped from the rest of it with that one drive as its focus at the time. Unlike most, it instinctively knew that to survive it would have to change and adapt to its new environment, and the sooner the better.

Focused as she was on watching through a little boy's eyes as he was once again treated with open hostility just for trying to buy food, she didn't notice anything was off until the anger she felt went out of control—doubling in an instant, tripled in the next, multiplied exponentially to mind-numbing rage in the next. Her eyes flew open as she jerked violently away from the memory. She regained her senses slowly as her eyes took in her surroundings. Behind her, several trees had been reduced to ground-level stumps and chunks of kindling. Immediately below her, the sand along the bank of the stream had glassed from what looked like intense heat, if the steam filling the air were any clue as to its cause. She took off in a dead run. With as much youki as she felt floating around in the air, anyone within ten miles would have been able to sense whatever the hell had just happened. As she ran, she dove back into her mind, back to where she had left the two alternate sets of memory. Only one set remained—the twelve-or-so years worth that she had been attempting to sort through. The _other_ was gone. This, she realized, was probably not a good sign.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Sorry for the delay. Expect another as I try to deal with the crap Open Office did to their product with the latest update. Apparently, it only opens .html with writer/web now, which does _not_ save in .odt from html. Which means that if I want to keep my line breaks and the majority of my formatting, I'm going to have to reinstall the 2.x version of OO or copy/paste every single new chapter from its html copy into writer and save as I did with this one. ...Not fun.

Also, in case it was unclear, I am using the Kitsune Clan bloodline in this story. If this offends, disappoints, or otherwise puts off some readers then I apologize for that.

Edit: I knew I forgot something. Thanks yet _again_ to Sin Saiori for prereading, as has apparently become the norm for this story and without whom the story would probably suck.


	22. Sayonara, Bye Bye

**The Missing Hokage**

**22: Sayonara, Bye-Bye**

* * *

Ninja of Konoha were dying. In and of itself, this was an expected and accepted reality of living in a shinobi village. What Danzou could not accept, however, was that _his_ ninja were dying. Nearly two thirds of his Root forces had been sent out on missions assigned by the Hokage and none of them had yet to return. It was highly suspicious, but Danzou had so far resisted the urge to question Jiraiya about it directly—well, as directly as he dared without openly admitting to having a faction of Konoha's ninja under his control. The best he would be able to do openly would be to convene a council meeting and force an inquiry into why so many of Konoha's shinobi were being sent out on suicidal missions.

And truthfully, it wasn't as if it were only his Root ninja being sent out—other Konoha shinobi were still being regularly sent out on high-priority missions. It just so happened that every one of his ninja to have been assigned missions recently were given high-risk missions that would normally be assigned to a team. Again, this was fairly standard operating procedure in a time of war—which they were currently in—and not something he could openly question Jiraiya about. The best he would be able to manage would be to suggest sending out at least teams of two as opposed to having the ninja solo missions to try to cover as many of them as they could, which is what Jiraiya—and Tsunade before him, though not to this extent—was doing and had done.

Finally, the old ninja made up his mind to act on his suspicions. A twitch of his arm and a pair of Root ANBU that had been hidden in the shadows of the room appeared to either side of him. "Have Koharu and Homura meet me," he instructed simply. The pair nodded and disappeared in identical clouds of smoke and chakra. Both Koharu and Homura knew where they were to meet, having been carrying out such clandestine meetings since shortly after Sarutobi's rise to the position of Hokage.

It was several hours later when Jiraiya found himself in a hastily-arranged council meeting. Taking his seat, he called the meeting to order before asking, "Alright, what was the big damn hurry?" As if he didn't have enough on his mind with the message sent by summon regarding Naruto—they had had the audacity to interrupt his writing, and he would like to get back to it soon. Not that he wasn't worried about the boy—far from it. He had simply decided to take a practical approach to it. Rushing out of Konoha with no real destination in mind would do the boy no good and would ruin all of the effort he had gone to to set up the upcoming small-scale exodus. Regardless of whether the boy lived or not, they still needed to carry through with the plan. Besides, he had faith in the boy. His thoughts were interrupted when he saw the smug look on Danzou's face as Homura stood and Jiraiya had his answer. The old war-hawk had finally decided to try to do something about his losses. Really, this would only move up Jiraiya's plans to leave the village and deal it as large a blow as they could on the way out.

* * *

Naruko yawned, stretching out as the morning sun peeked through the curtains of her room. After a moment of contemplation, she decided that she was far too comfortable to bother getting up right now. Maybe in ten more minutes or so. As she settled back down, a thought worked its way through her head questioning just why she felt so comfortable. Her body provided the answer to her brain, reporting the sensation of something soft and warm pressed flush against the bare skin of her back and legs.

Turning this information over slowly, her brain came to the logical conclusion that what she felt was the sensation of nude flesh molded closely to her own. Following that, it reasoned that the flesh in question could only belong to one of two people: either Isaribi—who her mind quickly ruled out as, while she was nice, Isaribi wasn't all that affectionate—or Temari. Her mind felt it was probably the older blonde as it found hazy memories of the night before. Reminded of that, her brain and body firmly chastised the rest of her for her foolishness the previous night in the form of a quickly rising headache and a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Mind and body paused in their war momentarily as she felt movement against her lower stomach. She found her hand moving of its own accord in an effort to identify the new sensation. She had her answer a moment later when her hand came to rest against an arm that had apparently been slung over her side. Following the arm down, she found a hand spread flat against her lower stomach. A moment later the fingers on the invading hand twitched, brushing through short golden curls as they moved slightly lower. As all of the facts finally hit home, panic began to set in.

Added on top of her hangover, the sick feeling in her stomach quickly grew unbearable and the young blond quickly stumbled out of bed and across the room to the door. She fumbled with the lock before throwing the door open and rushing down the hall towards the upstairs bathroom, heedless of her current state of undress. She threw open the bathroom door and fell to her knees in front of the toilet, barely having time to get the lid and seat up before the contents of her stomach introduced themselves to the porcelain shrine.

She didn't react or even so much as notice when a pair of hands pulled her long blonde hair back away from the bowl before tucking it all into one hand. She did, however, notice when a soft, warm hand slowly began stroking her neck, shoulders, and upper back. Her sense of smell temporarily overwhelmed, Naruko was left to guess as to who it was standing behind her while she paid her respects. After a moment, she settled on the obvious choice and once her heaves had settled into hiccups she croaked out, "Aren't you going to say 'I told you so?'"

Though she knew the younger blonde wouldn't see it, Temari smiled and shook her head. "No," she answered before adding, "I figure you've learned your lesson without me having to rub your nose in it." A moment later, she grinned and added, "Metaphorically or otherwise."

"Please don't," the clone shuddered, reaching up a shaky hand to pull down the lever just in case Temari decided to run with the more literal meaning of her words. A moment later, she attempted to stand. Before her knees had fully given out, she found Temari's strong arms supporting her weight and easing her back down onto the floor—probably saved from popping for the hundredth-or-so time since the older blonde had shown up.

"Sit," the older kunoichi commanded, her tone leaving no room for argument. Seeing she had been met with no resistance, she walked over to the sink and poured a glass of water before returning and handing it to Naruko. "Rinse."

"I'm not an invalid," the fox-faced girl whined petulantly, but took the offered glass and did as she was told before handing it back to Temari at the girl's request, spitting the waste-water into the toilet.

Refilling the glass, Temari searched around a moment before finding an orange-handled tooth-brush she assumed had to belong to one of the Uzumakis. Putting some toothpaste on the brush, she handed it and the glass back to the younger blonde before leaning against the counter and watching the girl make an annoyed face in her general direction before starting to brush her teeth. Temari's mind wandered as her eyes took in the scene before her—Naruko sitting nude and legs pretty much splayed open on the cold tile floor of the upstairs bathroom and running a toothbrush around inside her mouth, a small trail of toothpaste and drool slipping out of one corner of her mouth to fall atop one of her slightly swinging breasts.

Temari herself had not even bothered with a robe when she had risen from the bed to come check on the younger blonde. She had not thought anything of the action at the time as it had simply seemed like the right thing to do, but now she found herself going back over her actions and wondering why the simple act of holding her hair back and offering comfort had felt so... natural at the time. A vague memory surfaced and the girl rolled her eyes before chuckling dryly. "What?" Naruko asked around a mouthful of toothpaste, causing Temari to snicker at the action as it sent more of the stuff out of the younger blonde's mouth.

The elder blonde shook her head. "Nothing," she answered, shrugging off the younger girl's inquisitive look. "Just thought of something funny."

"What's so funny?" Naruko asked, finally having rinsed out her mouth and drained the rest of the water in the cup in one long pull.

"You'll understand when you're older," Temari smirked, offering her hand and pulling Naruko to her feet before leading her back towards her bedroom. _'If we're going to do this, Hinata and the others need to hurry their asses back,'_ she mused, glancing side-long at the slightly-shorter blonde. _'I'm not going to be able to wait much longer at this rate.'_

Shrugging off the Suna kunoichi's oddities, Naruko let her own mind wander. Something nagged at the back of her mind and, as they stepped out of the bathroom, she remembered a conversation she—or Naruto, rather—had had with Jiraiya on their journey to pick up Tsunade. The pair had stopped in a town not far from Konoha for a couple of days and Jiraiya had gone out 'gathering information' as soon as dark rolled around. Of course Naruto had followed at a distance and was unsurprised to find Jiraiya's reconnaissance had led him straight to the red-light district. After hitting a gambling den, an all-you-can-eat buffet, and a bar the Sannin had made his way into a brothel and spent the night—or at least Naruto had assumed he spent the night, as the blond had gone back to their hotel and the Sannin did not come back until the next morning. It was the conversation the pair had that morning that interested Naruko though.

_"Where were you all night?" Naruto asked, glaring at the old Sannin._

_Jiraiya sent the boy a lecherous grin. "You'll understand when you're older."_

_Naruto rolled his eyes. "Right," he mumbled sarcastically. "Like I'd have any use for a brothel."_

_"To each his own," the Sannin shrugged. "You should try it though. Who knows, you might like it. Maybe then you wouldn't be such an annoying brat," he snickered._

_"So, do you actually love any of the women you sleep with?" Naruto asked after a few moments of silence as the old shinobi went about making a pot of coffee. "I don't see how you can just do that and... walk away."_

_Turning away from the coffee pot as he turned it on, Jiraiya focused on the boy sitting on the end of one of the room's two beds. "Of course I do. I love each and every one of them," he answered seriously. It seemed he couldn't resist the temptation though and grinned, adding, "Usually many times a night."_

_Naruto rolled his eyes. "That isn't what I meant, you old pervert. I mean, have you ever been _in _love with any of them?"_

_"Nah," Jiraiya shook his head. "There have only been three women in my life that I thought I could love like that. One died, the other left and I haven't seen her since, and the third... well, I kind of let her slip through my fingers. Then again, she always was kind of hard-headed."_

_Naruto's pride almost kept him from asking the question that was on his mind, but he beat it down long enough to ask, "How did you know?"_

_"How did I know I was in love?" Jiraiya asked, getting a nod from the boy in answer. The Sannin shrugged. "Hard to explain, really. The simplest answer is that you know you're in love with a woman when you're not only willing but _eager _to hold her hair back for her when she throws up."_

_"That's kind of gross," the blond wrinkled his nose in disgust._

_"Get used to it, kid. Humans are disgusting animals," Jiraiya pointed out bluntly, for once acting his age—that or suffering from a minor hangover. Naruto couldn't quite tell whether the Sannin's tone was from the general orneriness that comes with age or from an impending headache. "We eat, breathe, sleep, shit, bleed—and all of this is proof we're alive. Accepting that and getting over it is part of growing up. Looking after someone you care about when they're not at their best, when they're doing all of those things that should make your stomach turn, is about the best way you can show someone you love them without actually telling them."_

Naruko glanced to her side to see Temari standing within arm's reach as the pair dressed, the elder of the two blondes surreptitiously keeping an eye on the younger and always staying close enough to grab her should she fall again. As she noticed this, other instances of things like this came to mind, where the older blonde had subtly—or not so subtly—watched over her at various times. Other memories surfaced of instances where the blonde had done or said things that Naruko had simply shrugged off at the time as Temari being friendly. And then, of course, there was that thing in the bath...

Temari twitched, almost reaching out for the younger blonde as she stumbled slightly pulling a skirt on. When she caught sight of the look on her face, she was reminded of a day she'd seen a similar look on the same girl's face just a short time ago. Smirking, she asked, "So, get nailed with that clue-by-four again?"

"Shaddap!" Naruko snapped, sticking her tongue out as she turned and headed downstairs. _'I know she said she liked me, and she kissed me, but I didn't think... arg, I'm such an idiot,' _the girl whined internally. The idea that Temari liked her, possibly even loved her in the same way Hinata loved her—or Naruto, though now that she thought about it Hinata did say she liked both of them on more than one occasion (but that was an entirely different can of worms best left for opening another time)—left her with mixed feelings. On the one hand, she was excited—a girl might actually love her, which was something she had craved since childhood. On the other hand, she was confused as to what to do—a girl might actually love her, in addition to Hinata who had already told her—again, not her but Naruto—how she felt. And on the other hand, she was scared—she barely knew how to react to one girl professing to love her, and now another? What the hell was she supposed to do? And on the other hand...

_'All out of hands,'_ Naruko mused, rolling her eyes as she pushed her worries to the side. _'Whatever happens, happens,'_ she decided, going with the old stand-by of improvising. "Want to go out for breakfast?" she asked, getting a shrug in answer.

Behind the younger blonde, Temari slipped her sandals on and followed her outside into the cool morning air. She hadn't seen the brown-haired bitch this morning and had to assume she was working—which was great, since it meant she didn't have to deal with resisting the impulse to slap the younger girl and yell at her for ignoring Naruko. Sighing quietly, she reminded herself again that the blonde in question had said that the civilian girl was a good person but couldn't quite bring herself to believe that given the evidence she'd seen to the contrary. Deciding to distract herself from that line of thought, she asked, "It's been bugging me for a while now, but if you don't mind me asking... where do you get your money?"

Naruko shot a glance to the side, where Temari had moved up after exiting the house and rolled her eyes at the older kunoichi before answering sarcastically, "We're ninja."

Temari casually reached over and attempted to swat the younger blonde in the back of the head playfully, only to have her hand ducked. "No shit?" she asked, her tone dripping an equal amount of sarcasm. "I noticed you don't seem to keep track of it. You're kind of weird in your spending habits. You buy food pretty much whenever and where ever you want without even looking at the prices, but I haven't seen you spend any on clothes, weapons, or pretty much anything else but entertainment."

"I keep track of it up here," Naruko answered, pointing towards her head. "Besides, it's not like I really have to worry about it anyway."

"Everyone worries about money."

Naruko shook her head. "Not me. Sure, I used to worry about it all the time back when I wasn't getting any—it's kind of like air that way, I suppose."

"Or sex," Temari smirked, drawing a snort of laughter from the younger girl.

"As I was saying," Naruko continued, shooting a glare Temari's general direction for interrupting before continuing. "I worried about it all the time back in Konoha since I... we didn't have much—or any, most of the time. When we left, 'baachan took about half of the treasury with her. We put a bit in the bank in an account for team expenses, put some in individual accounts for personal expenses, and we're sitting on the rest. At the moment, we're pretty set for cash. And even if we weren't, you've seen what I can do."

Temari nodded. "That's true. I wonder if it's some kind of bloodline," she mused, sending the younger girl a thoughtful look.

"I doubt it," Naruko denied. _'It's more likely that it's Fate's way of trying to apologize for dealing me a shitty hand right from the get-go, though I doubt that too.'_

"Why not?" Temari asked, now seriously considering the idea. "You said yourself that Naruto does it too."

"Yeah, but that's..." Naruko sighed. "I just don't think it's a kekkei genkai. Sure, it would be awesome if it was, but it probably isn't. And anyway, I've got enough money in my account now from the funds taken from Konoha and various winnings that I just don't need to worry about money any more."

Temari snorted. "Wish I could just stop worrying about it," she murmured.

"You could."

"Oh? How do you suggest I manage that?" Temari asked, raising an eyebrow in curiosity.

"You could stay with us," Naruko suggested.

Temari shot the younger blonde an odd look as she nearly stumbled on their walk into town. It was not lost on her that the younger blonde was suggesting more than simply prolonging her mission here indefinitely. "You're suggesting I just abandon Suna? Aside from the fact that I would probably be labeled as a traitor and issued a Kill On Sight order in Wind Country, Gaara would feed me to his sand."

"Naw," Naruko denied. "If he were going to do that, he'd have done it a long time ago, wouldn't he?" the younger blonde asked, shooting Temari a foxy grin.

The older blonde had to concede the point, though she added, "Yeah, but this might be what finally sets him off."

"I doubt that," Naruko shook her head. "You were sent here knowing what we were and knowing it was a possibility that you may decide you like the way we operate better than the way a typical hidden village works. And besides, I wasn't suggesting you abandon Suna or anything. You could just ask for the assignment to be made long-term or something."

Giving the matter a moment of thought, Temari shrugged, deciding not to comment that that had been exactly what she'd thought. "That might work, since I'm already assigned out here indefinitely or unless your boss tells me to leave."

Naruko waved a hand dismissively. "She wouldn't do that." After a moment, she added, "Well, at least not if I asked to let you stay or if you actually decided to join. Besides, you know you'll have way more fun with us than back in Suna."

Temari smiled as she could have sworn the younger blonde had nearly said 'with me' but had changed her mind at the last moment. "Maybe," she conceded. "I'd have to put up with _you_ full time, but I suppose a few sacrifices are to be expected."

"Hur hur," Naruko rolled her eyes. "You know I'm the most entertaining person you've ever met."

"Well, you are occasionally good for a laugh."

Narrowing her eyes, the shorter blonde shot a side-long glance at Temari. "Oh _really_?"

Smirking, Temari shrugged before pointing up the path to where the town was coming into view. "Breakfast?"

"Oh sure, change the subject," Naruko grumbled, leading them in the general direction of where she knew the shops selling food this early would be open. As they sat down to breakfast, Naruko's mind turned over her current situation while she kept up light conversation with Temari between bites. She knew that soon, Naruto and the others would return and either by choice or by chance, she would be leaving soon. Despite the seemingly endlessly deep well of luck she and Naruto drew upon at times, she knew even that wouldn't be enough to save her once the rest of Team Hokage returned. There would simply be too many people and too many opportunities for accidents—eventually, she would pop. Really, she was surprised she had lasted this long—especially given the spill she vaguely remembered taking right before the shit hit the fan and clones started popping left and right.

That memory brought another with it, that of Temari looking down on her as a single thought burned itself into her mind when everything went to hell in a hand basket. She did not want to die. The question was, would dispersing be the equivalent of death for a clone? She knew memory carried over, but she had to wonder if it would be enough. And then, of course, there was the question of whether or not she could actually die at all seeing as she was just Naruto with a different set of recent memory and experiences than the original. Glancing at Temari as the girl sipped her orange juice, Naruko sighed quietly and for the first time since the Suna kunoichi had shown up on her doorstep—or Dane's, at any rate—began to doubt whether or not this little plan of hers was worth it. Uzumaki Naruto had never known any real limits in his pranking—there was no such thing as going too far. Now, though, she was beginning to wonder if perhaps she might have done just that.

"You ok?" Temari asked quietly, drawing the girl's attention out of her thoughts—if only momentarily.

Naruko grinned, her mask firmly back in place. "Yeah, just trying to think up a way to prank Naruto when he gets back." Another half-truth. She was getting entirely too good at that. Maybe when the others got back she could finally be completely honest with Temari.

Temari raised one thin eyebrow before rolling her eyes at the younger girl. "Sometimes, you two are so much alike it's scary."

"You'd be surprised," Naruko shrugged, putting money down to cover the bill and standing. "Well, come on. Let's go find something to do."

"No karaoke bar for you," Temari said sternly, sending the younger girl a glare.

"Awe," the fox-faced girl pouted. "But it's so much fun!" Seeing Temari's exasperated look, she grinned. "Well, except for stuff like this morning. Yeah, you're right. No karaoke then."

"Good, maybe you're finally starting to listen to reason," the elder blonde murmured, drawing an annoyed look from the younger of the duo.

Looking over the Suna kunoichi thoughtfully, Naruko tried to come up with something to do that the pair hadn't already done. Light glinting off metal around the other kunoichi's neck drew Naruko's attention to the hitai-ate there and brought with it the memory of just where it was the older girl hailed from. _'What can we do here that can't be done in Suna,'_ the fox-faced girl wondered idly. Deciding to go with something simple, she asked, "Have you ever been fishing?"

Temari raised an eyebrow. "Fishing? That's the best you could come up with?" Seeing Naruko shrug, she rolled her eyes. "Yeah, once. It's pretty easy to hit them."

"I meant the civilian way," Naruko clarified, getting a shake of the head from the older blonde. "Great, then that's what we're doing."

"Whatever makes you happy," Temari sighed, mentally preparing herself for a day or boredom.

* * *

Naruto stretched as he waved up to the toad he, Hinata, and Tsunade had been riding for most of the day. The toad waved back as it and its brothers disappeared in a cloud of smoke and chakra—back to where ever it was they were summoned from. Making a mental note to ask where summons came from later, the blond turned his attention towards where Tsunade had pulled her wide-brimmed hat down over her eyes to shade them from the sun and begun walking down the dusty road that lead to Otafuku Gai. The group had agreed to walk the last few miles, both to stretch their legs and because Tsunade apparently had something she wanted to get settled before they reached the house they had been staying in.

"Haku, Tenten, you're on point," the Sannin ordered, waving them towards the front of the group.

The bun-haired girl rolled her eyes as Shizune handed Tonton off to her. "Oh come on, if you want to get enough distance to talk about something without us overhearing, you should just ask. It's not like I'd say no," the girl complained, though she did pick up her pace beside the older boy and put several meters of distance between them and Team Hokage.

"As outsiders, it is not our place to complain if they desire privacy," the boy pointed out softly.

"Yeah, but it doesn't make it any less annoying. I _hate_ not knowing things," she sighed.

Behind them, one of Hinata's ears twitched as she listened in on the quiet conversation going on ahead of them with half her attention while the rest was split between paying attention to Tsunade and trying to keep from grabbing the red-furred tail swinging just outside of her grasp. She yawned widely as her attention drifted, thoughts of finding somewhere sunny and warm to pile up and take an evening nap drifting through her head as she regarded the blond boy attached to the tail that still held her gaze. Finally, unable to resist any longer, she gave into temptation as her hands shot out and clamped down on the swinging appendage and brought it up to her chest. "Are you even paying attention?" someone asked from nearby, drawing one of the girl's other new ears towards the sound.

"Nope," she answered honestly, smiling up at the exasperated look Tsunade was shooting her. "I couldn't resist." So saying, she buried her face in the tail clutched between her breasts and sighed in what appeared to the others to be a mild state of bliss.

"I'm kind of jealous," Shizune murmured softly, though everyone save for Haku and Tenten heard her. Shaking the feeling off, she turned her attention towards Naruto. "So, are you ready to try again?"

The blond boy rolled his eyes. "Do I have to?"

"Yes," both Tsunade and Anko answered, the latter rolling her eyes. Tsunade continued. "There are a couple of reasons, actually. First, I want to see if you can use that henge of yours to hide to hide your bloodline in case we have to go back to Konoha or interact with their shinobi any time soon."

"Well, that and the ears and tail are too memorable," Anko added. "You two stand out too much now. And while hoods and cloaks are not uncommon, they draw almost as much attention simply because people—namely ninja—want to know what's under them that's worth hiding."

"Correct," Tsunade continued. "Secondly, I want to see if this transformation has negatively affected your ability to perform the technique, beyond the chakra control issue. Thirdly, I want to know if you still have access to those new parts while under the technique."

"Whatever," Naruto rolled his eyes. His first attempt at performing the technique seallessly failed, drawing a momentary frown from the boy before he brought his hands together and formed the necessary seals. Ears, tail, and whiskers disappeared leaving behind what everyone recognized as the old Naruto—and drawing a whine of disappointment from Hinata. "Still works," Naruto pointed out. After a moment, of concentrating on the technique, he added, "It's harder than before though. It used to be that I could just do the jutsu and not worry about anything unless someone hit me or something."

"Notice anything else?" Shizune asked, drawing a humm from the boy as his face scrunched up in obvious concentration, drawing a giggle from Hinata.

"My ass feels tingly," Naruto answered, drawing a snort from Anko. Ignoring her, he added, "The top of my head and my face too."

Giving the boy a thoughtful look, Tsunade suggested, "Try moving your tail."

Shrugging, the boy did as she asked. Nothing happened at first, but with a little concentration there was a small release of smoke and chakra and the boy's tail became visible—though both the new ears and whiskers remained hidden under the transformation. "It broke," the boy deadpanned.

Blinking at the complete lack of surprise in the boy's voice, Anko asked, "What do you mean? Has this happened before?"

Naruto nodded. "A few times when I first started using the technique. I tried to hide the scars—well, I guess they weren't scars," the boy shrugged before continuing. "Anyway, I tried to hide the lines on my face but the jutsu always broke in that area. After a while, I could hold it for a while but no more than a few hours before it would break again."

"Even when you transformed into other people?" Tsunade asked, raising an eyebrow.

The blond boy nodded again. "Yep," he answered. A second later, two small releases of smoke and chakra preceded the jutsu breaking over his ears and whiskers. A moment after that, Naruto dispelled the rest of the technique.

"You don't seem very worried about it," Shizune pointed out.

Grinning, the boy answered, "Well, it'll probably get better with time. The more chakra control I regain, the longer I'll be able to hold it."

Deciding she had questioned the boy enough for the moment, Tsunade turned her attention towards where Hinata's eyes were again tracking the tail swinging from the back of the boy's pants. "Hinata," she called, catching the girl's attention. "Why don't you try Naruto's henge?"

Anko rolled her eyes. "You know it's not going to wo—" she started, only to be cut off.

"Ok," Hinata agreed, smiling brightly as she brought her hands together into the seals for the technique. A moment later, Hinata was replaced by a copy of Naruto as he had looked before receiving his _gifts_ from Kyuubi. "Hey, it worked!" the girl-turned-boy pointed out in surprise.

Three sets of jaws dropped open simultaneously. "What.." Shizune murmured.

"The," Tsunade continued for her first apprentice.

"Fuck," Anko finished, quickly grabbing one of the new-old-Naruto's arms and dragging 'him' into the underbrush, followed closely by Tsunade and Shizune.

Two minutes of silence and absolutely no sounds of struggle later, Hinata walked out of the underbrush with a small grin adorning her face. The three older kunoichi trailed behind her, Tsunade sporting an annoyed look, Shizune a faint blush, and Anko shooting a leer at Naruto. "What just happened?" the boy asked Hinata, shooting a suspicious look towards Anko.

"Never you mind," the older kunoichi _giggled_. Seeing the boy take a step back, she waved towards where Haku and Tenten had paused so as to not wander too far from the group. "Give us some room, would you?"

"We can still hear you from there, you know?" the boy pointed out.

"We know, Naruto-kun," Shizune nodded. "Please?"

Shaking his head, the boy did as he'd been asked with Hinata close on his heels, her eyes again locked on his tail. "Someone please tell me what the hell just happened," Tsunade all but groaned.

Shizune shrugged. "Kyuubi did it?" she suggested.

Giving the suggestion a moment of thought, Anko shook her head. "For all we know it could be, but it doesn't explain the old man's grand-brat being able to do it."

"So then what do the three of them have in common?" Shizune asked, glancing between her sensei and the four other ninja ahead of them.

"Other than Naruto and Konohamaru both being obnoxious brats?" Anko asked, grinning.

"If that were a requirement, you would have mastered the technique by now," Shizune countered.

Anko perked up, sensing an impending verbal battle of wits between herself and the first apprentice. "Oh, that's how you want to play, huh?" she murmured, shooting the other kunoichi a slightly-feral look. It had been a while since she'd gotten into anything approaching a good fight that wouldn't end in someone choking to death on their own bodily fluids. Shizune snorting with laughter as she looked away and movement from up ahead diverted Anko's attention to where Naruto and Hinata had been walking. At that moment, the pair were currently rolling around on the ground in what was either the weirdest fight Anko had ever seen... or the weirdest form of foreplay the special jonin had seen to date. "Looks like they're having fun," she snickered as the sounds of Hinata's peals of laughter drifted back to them and the girl apparently redoubled her efforts against the blond boy.

Ahead of them, Haku shot a sidelong glance at Tenten. "Should we stop them?"

The bun-haired girl shook her head. "Nah. Start taking bets, maybe."

After a moment of watching the pair, Tsunade's eyes narrowed. "Hinata, are you feeling alright?" she called towards where the girl had finally subdued Naruto and had straddled his waist. Apparently, she still had enough chakra control to get in a few good jyuuken strikes.

"I feel fine!" the girl called back, smirking down at the blond below her as he went very, very still when she shifted her hips. "Better than fine," she added absently.

"What are you doing?" Shizune asked as Tsunade grabbed one of Hinata's arms and dragged her off the top of the boy, drawing a whine out of the girl. Anko took hold of one of Naruto's arms and helped the boy to his feet, though she had to admit that she agreed with Shizune. Breaking the two up when things were just getting interesting was a bad call.

"Just a hunch," Tsunade murmured, medical chakra glowing faintly around her hands as she examined Hinata again. After a few minutes of sweeping her hands around Hinata's body—though mostly concentrated around her head—Tsunade canceled the technique and pushed the girl forward gently, urging them to continue down the road. _'Higher than normal endorphine levels, but nothing dangerous,'_ she mused, her mind turning over the possibilities.

"What did you find?" Shizune asked, tempted to perform the jutsu herself.

Instead of answering immediately, the Sannin turned her attention to Naruto. "Go help Tenten and Haku."

Naruto shot the older woman a glare but quickened his pace to join the other two. _'I don't mind if she wants to give Hinata some privacy but she should just say so,'_ the boy mused, wondering what the older woman had found out.

"Everything ok back there?" Tenten asked, drawing the boy out of his thoughts. The pig in her arms attempted to wriggle free and she debated whether or not to hand it off to Naruto.

The blond boy nodded. "Yeah, but apparently they don't want me listening."

"Girl talk," both Tenten and Haku surmised, earning the missing-nin's apprentice an odd look from them both. "What?" he asked, shooting the two a confused look.

Behind the three, Tsunade cast a quick genjutsu around their group which would cause anyone attempting to listen in to hear only buzzing—so long as they didn't break the technique—before turning her attention to Hinata. "Have you felt different lately?" she asked, wanting to get confirmation for what her medical jutsu had hinted at and her years of experience concluded to be the most likely answer.

Hinata shrugged. "A bit," she answered evasively.

Tsunade was having none of it. "Be more specific."

Rolling her eyes, Hinata elaborated, "I've been in a really good mood for the past few days. Naruto-kun is alive and safe, we're going home, and I can finally get a decent bath. What's not to be happy about?"

Deciding to try a different approach since the girl wasn't giving her the answer she wanted, the Sannin asked, "When was the last time you masturbated?"

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune gasped quietly, shooting her sensei a glare. "Isn't that a little too personal?"

"No," both Tsunade and Anko answered. Seeing both the Sannin and her first apprentice shoot her a questioning look, the woman shrugged. "What? I'm bored and this is interesting." She turned her attention back towards Hinata, shooting the younger girl a leer. "So? Answer the question."

The ex-Hyuuga stuck her tongue out at the special-jonin a moment before turning her attention back to Tsunade. "Last night. Why?"

"Before that?" the Sannin asked, ignoring the question for the moment.

Eyes narrowing in annoyance, Hinata decided to play along if only to hurry things along. "The night before that. And the morning I woke up with this," she said, lavender-colored tail swinging up and nearly swatting the Sannin in the face.

"And before that?" Tsunade pressed.

"On the boat, after we got Naruto-kun back. Before that, I think was the first night we spent in the new house." Seeing Tsunade about to press further, she sighed and held up a hand for the Sannin to wait. "I think the last time before that was a few months ago. What does this have to do Naruto-kun's henge?"

"How would you say you felt most of the time, before we decided to leave?" the Sannin asked, changing directions again.

Hinata shrugged. "Like crap most of the time," she answered bluntly. "Being near Naruto-kun has always been nice though."

"How often did you do it when you were assigned to Kurenai's team?"

"I didn't."

"Why not?" Anko asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Kurenai-sensei warned me not to. Between living in a clan that can see through walls and being on a team with an Inuzuka, his dog, and an Aburame and his kikai, private moments were non-existent. In the academy I could at least find somewhere quiet during lunch, but that wasn't guaranteed."

Nodding her understanding, Anko turned her attention to Tsunade. "So, any of that actually have any bearing on the situation or were you just trying to see if she would blush?" the woman asked. After taking a moment to process the words that had come out of her own mouth, she turned towards Hinata and leaned in closely, eying the girl suspiciously. "You didn't blush the whole time."

The girl under scrutiny smiled, her tail coming up and nearly swatting Anko on the nose before the older woman pulled away. "I guess it's not that embarrassing any more."

Deciding to take that as a personal challenge, Anko leaned back in and cupped one hand over one of the girl's new ears. A few whispered words later, she leaned back to check her handiwork. Sure enough, a blush had spread from the ex-Hyuuga's cheeks and down past her neck. "Still got it," Anko gloated.

"If you're done flirting," Shizune sighed, turning her attention back to Tsunade. "Well?"

"Check for yourself," the Sannin shrugged, drawing a frustrated huff from her first apprentice.

"Fine," the younger woman grumbled, running a quick diagnostic jutsu over Hinata. "I don't see anything abnormal."

"Exactly," Tsunade nodded. Seeing her apprentice glare her general direction, the Sannin decided to elaborate. "I'd be willing to bet that she was clinically depressed before all this."

"And the personal questions?" Shizune asked, curiosity piqued.

"Appetite—sexual or otherwise—varies with a person's mood. Before, she felt like shit so she rarely ever took time out to enjoy herself. Her mood picked up when we left, as did her free time, privacy, and subsequently arousal. And now—" Tsunade started, only to be cut off by Hinata.

"And now I've been... excited full time for the past few days. I was trying to ignore it," she admitted sheepishly, drawing a grin from Anko.

"Why didn't you say so? I'd gladly volunteer to help relieve some stress," the older kunoichi almost purred, getting a swat on the arm from Shizune for her trouble.

"Knock it off," the brown-haired kunoichi chastised. "I can understand all of that, but what does it have to do with Naruto-kun's jutsu."

Ignoring the question for the moment, Tsunade asked Hinata, "What did it feel like?"

Giving the question a moment of thought, the girl answered, "A little funny, actually. It's hard to explain."

"Could you do it again?" Tsunade pressed.

Hinata brought her hands together into the required seals and disappeared in a small cloud of smoke and chakra, replaced by herself as she was before waking up with a tail. "Yep," the girl grinned happily, dropping the henge a moment later.

Biting her lip, the Sannin asked, "How did you do it?"

"I don't know," the girl answered simply. "It just... happened."

Glancing between Hinata, Tsunade, and Naruto in the front of the group, Shizune asked, "Did you concentrate on anything while you were doing the technique?"

"Nope," Hinata answered. "Well, just the image I wanted to change into. Aside from that? No. I just sort of stopped thinking about it and did it."

Anko blinked, shooting a glance between Hinata and Naruto. "It couldn't _possibly_ be that easy," the kunoichi murmured. Narrowing her eyes, she focused on the girl in front of her and sealed for the jutsu. The three other kunoichi felt the small flare of chakra in the air as Anko attempted to perform the technique.

"You're using too much," Hinata pointed out quietly, trying to help without breaking the other kunoichi's concentration. A moment later, Anko's chakra output dropped and the older kunoichi disappeared in a cloud of smoke and chakra, which cleared to reveal a nearly-perfect copy of Hinata as she appeared now.

"That feels so weird," Anko/Hinata murmured, looking down at herself as the tail on her rear twitched.

When she felt she had regained the ability to speak, Tsunade managed to ask, "How?"

'Hinata' looked up from checking herself out, the original Hinata and Shizune circling her and occasionally pressing, cupping, or pulling things to verify that the jutsu had indeed been cast correctly. "They were right," she shrugged. "I guess you've just got to have an open mind."

"It makes sense though, in a weird way," Shizune mused aloud, drawing the attention of the other three kunoichi. "Well, it's what all three of them have in common now—an open mind. Naruto-kun's way of thinking about things has probably never been what one would consider normal. Konohamaru is just a child, looking at the technique as only a child would—he wouldn't have any preconceived notions that the technique should, by all rights, be impossible to perform. From the way Naruto told the story, he just showed Konohamaru the jutsu himself and taught him the seals for it—not the mechanics of it, since Naruto-kun doesn't know them himself. And as for Hinata-chan, if what you said was correct Tsunade-sama, then her own world-view and attitude have probably been thrown somewhat off-kilter while her body tries to find its balance and correct for years of chemical imbalance. And there is precedent of techniques failing or succeeding based either on a ninja's mood or expectations when casting the technique. It's part of the reason why most ninja prefer to vocalize jutsu—it helps to focus on the technique and not on whether or not it will work."

"But... that's _impossible!_" the Sannin all but screamed, unintentionally letting her genjutsu drop and causing Naruto to wince from the front of the group. Tsunade couldn't help it though. That a technique with so much potential could hang on whether or not one believes it will work... the Sannin simply couldn't wrap her mind around it, regardless of the fact that it was _she_ that had taught Shizune that little fact about jutsu vocalization years ago in the first place.

Seeing they had the boy's attention, Anko grinned towards Hinata before murmuring, "Play along." Reaching out, she grabbed Hinata's hand and pulled the girl along through a normal shunshin to land in front of the boy. "Naruto-_kun_," Anko purred, latching onto the blond in question and dragging her arm down his chest. On the other side of the boy, Hinata had mimicked the woman's movements and was grinning ear-to-ear. Leaning up on her tip-toes, she drew the boy's ear-lobe between her lips before biting it softly.

"I think you killed him," Tenten deadpanned, seeing the boy had gone red and very, very still.

They were cut off from further tormenting the boy by a quiet curse from Tsunade's general direction. Turning, the group observed the Sannin performing the seals for Naruto's henge. When she failed to produce any results, the Sannin growled out a quiet, "Fuck." She gave the jutsu another attempt. Again, it failed. "Fuck." Again. Fail. "Fuck."

Sighing, Shizune spoke up in an effort to intercede before her master worked herself into a funk. "We're almost home, why don't we hold off on trying any more until we get back?" she asked.

"Fine," Tsunade all but growled, shooting a glare at the pair of Hinatas as she had lost track of which was which.

"Could you please get off now?" Naruto asked quietly, growing uncomfortable with all of the kunoichi in such close proximity. It was taking everything he had not to visibly react to the pair of Hinata currently latched onto him and he knew he was fighting a losing battle in that regard.

Instead of releasing the boy, Anko smirked. "I'm so glad you asked," the woman teased, her tone tipping the boy off as to which was the impostor. A moment later, she dropped the henge and Naruto found one side of his face buried in the kunoichi's not-insignificant bust.

Hinata shot a glance towards where Naruto's face was partially buried in Anko's breasts, down to her own breasts, and back again before the girl frowned. "I wish mine were that large," she sighed. A moment later, she released her hold on Naruto and gave the boy's arm a tug, freeing him from Anko and pulling the distracted boy in the general direction of Otafuku Gai and their home.

* * *

When the sun set and the pair made their way back to Team Hokage's residence that evening, Temari was actually surprised to admit that she'd enjoyed herself. The pair hadn't caught a thing, but it didn't matter to either of the blondes since they'd spent the day relaxing and talking on the bank of a small lake near the town. "I smell like bait," Temari wrinkled her nose and complained after taking a sniff of her hand.

"Yeah, you do kind of reek," the shorter blonde agreed, kicking off her sandals as the pair entered the home. Making her way into the main room, she sighed as she spotted Isaribi curled up on one of the couches fast asleep with a medical text spread open across her lap. She moved to pick the brown-haired girl up and take her to her room, only to stop as Temari's hand came down on her shoulder.

"She looks comfortable, just leave her," the elder blonde whispered before moving off towards the downstairs bath. Not that Temari particularly cared that Isaribi looked comfortable, she just didn't want to have to deal with her. She would never admit to feeling even a little jealous of the attention spared the brown-haired girl.

Deciding Temari was probably right, Naruko left Isaribi where she was and followed after the taller blonde. Shortly, she found herself rinsing soap suds off her body as she finished up her shower. As she slipped into the tub beside Temari, she found her mind wandering back to her thoughts from that morning. Death was something Naruto had never really spent much time thinking about. It was an inevitable, expected, and for the most part accepted fact of ninja life that that life would end prematurely. And even if it did not end at the point of a blade or in a fiery explosion of jutsu, it would still end. Some people preferred to simply accept this as reality and move on. Others turned to religion and the hope of some kind of after-life: be it reincarnation, sticking around as a spirit, or passing on to some greater state of being—Konoha and the majority of Fire Country following the 'Will of Fire.' And then there were those like Naruto who had simply avoided thinking about it altogether.

But that was part of the problem plaguing the oiroke kage bunshin: _was_ she Naruto or was she someone else entirely? Did being just that little bit different from the original give her enough individuality to be her own person? And when she dispelled, would she 'die'? Would she just be reabsorbed back into Naruto, everything that made up her mindset being overridden by the original? Or would she lurk in the boy's subconscious, stuck in that damnable seal room with the stupid fox for the rest of Naruto's life, forced to only watch while Naruto went on living _his_ life while she was denied a chance at it for herself? And even ignoring all of that, there was no guarantee that Naruto would live to see the next sunrise, let alone live long enough to really make anything out of his life. And if Naruto died, the clone probably wouldn't have it in her to pull another miracle out of thin air and continue to exist after the fact. That would be _real_ death—either passing on to some other world or simply ceasing to exist. That thought nearly brought her mind screeching to a halt—very nearly paralyzed her with dread over the possibility.

A warm hand resting against her upper arm caused Naruko to flinch and drew her attention towards where Temari sat beside her. Idly, one corner of her mind noted that the Suna kunoichi was much closer than she usually sat—their sides nearly, but not quite, touching. "Huh?" she asked eloquently at the expectant look on Temari's face.

"You ok?" the elder blonde asked, resisting the urge to point out that the younger girl had looked as though someone had walked over her grave. She would have been surprised by how close she was to the clone's actual line of thought.

Naruko smiled—one of those small, genuine Naruto smiles—before slipping their shared mask back in place and stretching her smile into a foxy grin. "Just thinking."

Deciding not to push the issue, Temari rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I could tell by the smoke pouring out of your ears."

"Hey!" the younger blonde pouted. "That's not fair."

Temari smirked before shrugging, her smirk widening as she followed the other girl's gaze shift down to her bust at the water line. Smacking her lips, she hummed. "Man, I could really go for some sake right now," she lamented quietly.

"Then get some. You know where the stuff is," Naruko pointed out.

"But—" the older girl started before cutting herself off. It would not do to just come right out and say that she was avoiding the stuff partly because she felt guilty but mostly because she was afraid that if given half an excuse, she would break her promise to Hinata.

"Well, if you don't go get some then I will," Naruko decided, moving to heave herself from the tub.

"Fine," Temari sighed, clamping down on the younger blonde's arm and dragging her back to a sitting position. "The things I do for you," the elder kunoichi grumbled, though she smiled while saying it. She dragged herself out of the tub—giving Naruko a show in the process and leaving the younger girl to stare after her—and made her way through the house into the kitchen. She hadn't bothered with a towel since she'd used the water manipulation exercise well enough to remove enough of the water on her body so as to not leave watery footprints through the house. Finding the cabinet where the sake was kept, Temari selected her preferred brand of sweet sake and a pair of cups. Glancing at the bottle, she sighed before replacing it and digging around for a smaller one. Resolving to be mindful of both her own and the other blonde's intake, she made her way back to the bath and settled down beside Naruko.

"Thanks," Naruko murmured, sipping on the offered drink as her mind found a path branching off from the track it had been on and ran down it full speed, if only to keep from going in circles about whether or not she was real or coming to a crashing halt when faced with the prospect of death. Instead, her sharp mind focused on the problem in a different way. The dilemma: humans inevitably die and Naruko did _not_ want to, even if it meant living on as Naruto it would still be some form of life. Nor did she want any of what was becoming her—their—family to die. The solution: find a way not to die. Not nearly as simple as it sounded. However, thinking on it, her mind came up with more than one example of possible answers to the problem. Tsunade, for instance, would (nearly) never die in battle due to the seal on her forehead—giving her, in essence, a form of limited immortality. Not agelessness for sure, since the jutsu apparently _increased _the effects of aging, but it was a start. Then again, Naruko—well, Naruto, since Naruko was a kage bunshin and lacked the necessary substance being that she would dispel with less force than it would take to trigger the ability—possessed a similar form of limited immortality in the form of Kyuubi's chakra. She knew it had kept the boy alive on more than one occasion when he should have outright died—and that wasn't even including the fact that Naruto's diet had consisted mostly of Ichiraku Ramen for _years_. ...Another thing she nearly smacked herself for not correcting sooner. Naruto could have just gone out into the forests surrounding Konoha and hunted for food. Instead, he had accepted the scraps the village had been unwilling but forced to part with...

Naruko shook her head and refocused—she was going off on a tangent... from a tangent. Kyuubi's chakra—or youki—was useful but had its drawbacks. Using too much at once would lead Naruto—and presumably herself—into a blind rage. Also, every time the boy had used it he had been left exhausted and sore all over afterward. It was really only good for an emergency, and not great at that. Another example of limited immortality was Orochimaru. From what she understood, the snake sannin changed out bodies for a fresh one every three years or so. How he managed it, no one but the sannin really knew and it was doubtful he would willingly share his secret. Also, from what Naruto had seen in the battle between the Sannin, himself, Shizune, and Kabuto the snake-bastard could shrug off damage like a snake shedding its skin. Orochimaru, it seemed, had found something approaching the best of both worlds: a form of defying age and a form of regenerating from or negating damage. He would probably never die of either of those two causes unless either he _had_ to switch bodies once every three years and could be kept from doing so or unless someone did so much damage to him that it would overrun his ability to cope with it.

Breaking from her thoughts long enough to refill her cup, Naruko turned those thoughts over for a moment before coming to a conclusion: Orochimaru's way was definitely out. Even if they could steal the technique somehow, even if they could modify it to not require human sacrifices, it was still an imperfect technique which could be beaten by someone more powerful. The blonde suspected Uchiha Itachi was one of those people capable of such a feat. Perhaps even herself—or Naruto—one day, if they ever managed to tap into enough of Kyuubi's power. That left only Tsunade's method to contemplate, as she really didn't know enough about how Kyuubi's regeneration worked to speculate much. From what she had seen and heard from either the sannin herself or from Shizune, Tsunade's technique relied on stored chakra to force the body to regrow lost tissue. Naruko saw two immediate problems with this—both of which Tsunade was already aware of, of course. The first problem: premature aging because of the way the seal worked to speed cellular mitosis as opposed to cellular _regeneration_. The technique achieved its main purpose of keeping the user alive at the moment—at the price of the user dying early from old age anyway. Not something Naruko looked forward to facing. The second problem: similarly to Orochimaru's technique, Tsunade's could be overrun or outlasted. Enough damage fast enough and she would be unable to cope. Enough damage over a long enough period of time and the seal would run out of stored chakra, leaving her vulnerable. And while there weren't very many people who could actually push her master far enough to use the technique—Orochimaru being one of those few—it was within the realm of possibility.

As for Kyuubi's youki... well, all Naruko really knew was that it regenerated lost tissue as opposed to healing in the normal way, meaning that the first downside to Tsunade's technique probably didn't apply. As for the second... well, the fox's chakra was pretty damn limitless. The problem was with Naruko's—or Naruto's, rather—body. The boy could only channel so much at one time before it began to negatively effect his body. They had never run a prolonged test using the fox's power but Naruko suspected that Naruto's body would burn out long before the fox ever ran out of chakra. The second problem was in how much throughput they could muster at any one time. She knew that that amount had increased with Naruto's most recent changes but had no real idea just how much or what other side-effects there may be. Granted, they could pull a _lot_ of the demon's youki at any one time—but not for long and not enough to completely overwhelm someone like Orochimaru in one shot. And as for its regeneration ability—they had never tested exactly how much damage it could take before calling it quits. Sure, there was that thing at the Valley of the End where she vaguely remembered Naruto getting a Chidori shoved into his lung, but that wasn't enough to really go on.

_'So if Baachan's, that snake-bastard's, and the fox's way all have their downsides... maybe there's another way. Or a way of combining them,'_ the clone mused. _'If Baachan could tweak her seal to draw on Kyuubi's power slowly over time then we could get around the whole too-much-at-once thing with the fox's power. And maybe figure out a way to make the seal regenerate like the fox's chakra as opposed to how it normally works.'_ After a moment though, she shook her head. _'No, even if that worked, it would only work for me. It's not like there's some way to...'_ Naruko blinked. And blinked again.

"So, what is it this time?" Temari asked, shaking the younger blonde out of her thoughts momentarily.

Naruko stuck out her tongue and shot the older girl a glare. "Shaddap," she murmured, refilling her drink and going back to her thoughts, Temari beside her murmuring something about another 'clue-by-four.'

* * *

Uzuki Yuugao... was bored nearly to tears. Sure, she took her duty seriously—more seriously than certain silver-haired, mask-wearing, porn-reading lazy asses anyway—but that didn't stop parts of even the most exciting mission from being boring. And a bored ninja was a very bad thing to have on a mission. Boredom lead to carelessness, to dropping one's guard, to taking foolish risks, and ultimately lead to very dead ninja. It was something even the most disciplined mind could succumb to. And while they did warn about the perils of bored ninja in both the academy and later in more advanced training in preparation for things like induction into the ANBU corps, that didn't mean that it didn't happen on a regular basis on the field.

Sighing in annoyance as the pressure in her bladder and bowels finally reached a level where she could no longer ignore it, Yuugao pulled back from the position she'd been in for the last few hours and found a secluded place to take care of business just over a mile away from Team Hokage's residence. _'The one thing they never really talk about is having to use the bathroom on a mission,'_ she mused, sighing quietly in relief. A few minutes later, a low-level water jutsu left her feeling clean again and an earth jutsu buried and scattered the waste. Taking to the trees, she made her way quickly back to a tree near the house, noting that nothing of interest had happened in the few minutes she had been otherwise occupied. Yuugao was bored... but it didn't look like she would have to suffer in silence much longer as her sharp eyes made out several figures approaching the house from the road.

* * *

Team Hokage had spent the rest of the walk down the road talking quietly amongst themselves—or cursing quietly, in Tsunade's case—until they reached the pathway that lead up to their home. As they neared the house, Naruto faltered a step and tilted his head up slightly, inhaling through his nose. "You smell something funny?" he quietly asked of the group in general, getting head-shakes from everyone save for Hinata.

"It may just be Temari," Hinata suggested, though she had her doubts.

"Just relax," Anko murmured as her eyes swept the trees. A flash of white caught her eyes before it disappeared behind a tree. "You guys go on inside."

"What the hell for?" Naruto glared at the older woman. If there was going to be a fight, he wanted to be in the middle of things, not hiding in a house like a helpless civilian.

As though she read his mind, the kunoichi said, "There isn't going to be any fighting. Now, get inside before I decide to turn your ball sack into a coin purse."

Behind the special-jonin, Tsunade shot a glance towards Hinata. "How many?"

"Just one. ANBU, by the mask. Konoha hitai-ate," the girl answered.

"Jiraiya probably sent someone out to make contact. Go inside then," Tsunade ordered the rest of the group, shooting a look towards Shizune that silently told the older apprentice _'you too.' _"You can come out now," the Sannin announced at a normal volume once the others were inside, knowing the ANBU above them could either hear her or lip read from her position. After waiting a minute with no reply, she shot a glance towards the special-jonin beside her. "Anko."

Grinning, the special-jonin took to the trees. A moment later, the sounds of a short scuffle reached the Sannin's ears, but she didn't hear the ring of steel-on-steel or sense a large amount of chakra being channeled, so she held her position. The sounds of struggle stopped and a minute later, Anko dropped from the tree-tops and set about straightening her jacket and shirt, ignoring her even-more-mussed hair. "It's just Yuugao. That perverted teammate of yours sent her to watch the place for him. Apparently she's been given no real orders other than to keep watch over the place and wait for orders from the Hokage."

"Very cute, Jiraiya," Tsunade groused. Sighing, she spoke a little louder. "I order you to come down." One ANBU dropping out of the trees to land in a kneel before her later, Tsunade rolled her eyes. "Cut that shit out," she ordered, under her breath adding, "Over-dramatic brats playing at being ninja." The purple haired ANBU stood and though she couldn't see it, Tsunade got the distinct impression she was being glared at. "Go back to Konoha."

Seeing Yuugao simply stand there, Anko shook her head. "That's not going to work. You should know that," she pointed out.

Nodding, Tsunade asked, "Jiraiya leave you any messages to pass along to me?" Seeing Yuugao shake her head, she asked, "Any word from Konoha since you got here?" Another head-shake. "Were you ordered to cut communications with Konoha?" A nod this time. "I see," Tsunade murmured. After a moment of thought, she decided that it was worth a shot and ordered, "You are relieved of duty until Jiraiya contacts you."

"Oh thank gods," Yuugao sighed, reaching up and tilting the mask up so it rested atop her head. "I thought you'd never ask."

Shooting a grin between Tsunade and Yuugao, Anko rubbed her hands together and asked, "So... can we keep her?"

Returning the grin, Yuugao answered, "Only if you promise to feed me, bathe me, and change my clothes. I haven't had a decent meal in ages, or a bath, and I am sick and fucking tired of washing my clothes in a stream."

* * *

Inside, Naruto blinked as a slightly-shorter, brown-haired form wrapped itself around his chest. "I missed you," a muffled voice called from where Isaribi had buried her face against his chest. "That girl from Suna has been such an obnoxious bitch," she whined, letting the boy go and moving to hug Hinata.

"We missed you too," Hinata smiled as Naruto attempted to parse what the girl had said.

"Temari?" he asked, getting a nod. "What did she do?"

Isaribi shrugged. "She got sort of pissy when all your clones popped. Well, all of them but the one she's been fawning over."

"Huh?" the boy asked eloquently. "Where are they now?"

"They're upstairs, getting changed. They just got out of the bath," she answered.

Footsteps from the stairs drew the others' eyes to a pair of blondes coming down. Naruto glanced between Temari and what was obviously an oiroke-clone of himself—who paused halfway down the stairs to lean against the banister and watch the proceedings below cautiously—in confusion. "Wait, what?" he murmured.

Beside the boy, Hinata giggled and made her way over and up to Naruko. Wrapping her arms around the clone, she gave the tailless blonde a quick peck on the lips. "Have fun while we were away?"

Naruko rolled her eyes. "Lots," she answered quietly before disentangling herself from the overly-affectionate ex-Hyuuga, who hopped the side of the banister and made her way back to Naruto's side.

"What's going on?" Tenten asked, glancing between the blond boy and his clone warily. She knew enough about the boy by now to realize a set-up when she saw one. Seeing a look of slight confusion on Temari's face as the girl glanced between the pair, realization set in. "Oh," she murmured, not knowing whether to laugh or feel sorry for the blonde girl for what was about to happen if her hunch was right. Beside her, it seemed Haku had settled on being amused, if the smile on the boy's face was any indication.

"So, where's Tsunade-sama," Temari asked, glancing between the blond boy and what she had assumed to be his sister. Something about the way the boy was staring at the other girl didn't set quite right with her. That was ignoring the fact that both Naruto and Hinata now sported a new set of ears and a tail each. That, she assumed, was just some henge meant to play a prank on a few villagers or something. Those two—or Naruto, at least, but Hinata would probably follow his lead anyway—were nuts enough to do something like that. She figured the best reaction was to just take it all in stride—showing any other reaction would give the blond boy the satisfaction of having actually surprised her, and she wouldn't be having any of that.

"She had some business to take care of outside," Shizune answered quietly, biting her lip to keep from giving anything away.

"Oh, that ANBU. She's been here a while," Temari shrugged.

Naruko blinked, rocking back on her heels slightly at this information. "Hey wait, there was an ANBU here and you didn't tell me?"

The Suna-kunoichi shrugged as the front door opened, admitting Tsunade, Anko, and a woman she guessed to be the ANBU by her armor and the mask sitting atop her head. "I assumed you knew. She didn't seem to want to bother anyone, so I just ignored her for the most part."

Anko blinked. "You let an unknown, potentially hostile ANBU make camp outside and didn't do anything about it?"

"Like I said, I didn't sense any killing intent so I didn't think it was a problem. Besides, I didn't say I didn't do anything about it. Just that I ignored it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tsunade asked, distracted momentarily by Anko's barely-suppressed snort of laughter and following the kunoichi's line of sight to where her eyes were darting between Naruto, Temari, and a female Naruto-clone still perched warily on the stairs.

Grinning, Temari whistled quietly and a brief burst of wind announced the arrival of a medium-sized weasel carrying a very sharp looking scythe and wearing a green vest. Looking over towards its summoner from its perch on Temari's shoulder, it sighed. "Can I go home yet? This job has been nothing but troublesome."

"Yeah, that's fine," Temari answered. She turned her attention back to the group as the small summon disappeared. "See, I had it covered."

"Ok, ignoring all of that," Naruto cut in, drawing everyone's attention his way. "What are you doing here?" he asked of the clone.

Naruko shrugged, glancing down towards Temari and winking. "Oh, this and that."

"How long have you been here?" the blond asked, growing worried. If she had been around long enough...

Seeing where his line of thought was going, Naruko grinned. "Long enough to cause trouble for _you_."

"Ah, crap," the blond groaned. "I hate you."

"Ok, what's going on?" Temari asked, finally getting fed up with the feeling of anxiety growing in her gut. Something didn't quite add up here, but damned if she could put her finger on what.

_'Well, I guess this is it then. I really hope you appreciate all I've done for you. Hopefully you'll even get a laugh out of it, even if I don't,'_ she mused silently, regarding her creator and brother. Abandoning the relative safety of the stairs—which she had decided upon seeing Naruto would probably be the safest place to stand to avoid any prat-fall related accidents that could lead to her untimely end—Naruko made it half of the rest of the way down the stairs before the strap on her sandal broke, consequently destroying the sandal and sending her flailing straight towards Tsunade at the bottom of the stairs. A soft impact later, she was relieved to find that she still drew breath—even if that was made somewhat problematic by Tsunade's rather impressive bust nearly suffocating her. Recovering swiftly, she pulled back from the Sannin and sent the older woman a sheepish look. "Oops?" she murmured, earning an eye-roll from the eldest blonde for her effort. Shaking off her embarrassment, Naruko reminded herself at the task at hand and walked the few feet between Tsunade and where Temari stood mostly-facing Naruto and Hinata.

"Problems?" the Suna kunoichi teased. The flinch she got in reaction was not what she had been expecting.

"Right, as I was saying..." the clone sighed. Leaning against Temari's side, she cupped her hand to the girl's ear. "I'm sorry," she whispered, causing the blonde beside her to stiffen. Dropping her arm, she turned to again regard the blond boy who had spawned her. "YOU!" she yelled, pointing at the boy and actually causing him to flinch.

"Me?" Naruto asked, pointing to himself as the clone approached.

"Oh yes, you. You've had this coming for a long time," Naruko smirked.

"What did I do?"

The clone rolled her eyes. "You know what you did," she answered. "You're a loud, obnoxious, thickheaded, completely _blind_ little boy who needs to be brought down a peg or two."

Naruto blinked. "What are you planning to do?" he asked, eyes darting around to evaluate potential exits if things got nasty.

"What do you think I'm going to do?" she asked. Before he could answer, she cut him off. "I'm going to embarrass you in front of your friends. I'm going to make you question your sanity for years to come. I'm going to be as much of a pain in the ass for you as you are for everyone else. And to top it all off..." she paused, waiting. Ah, there it was. That questioning look wondering just how things could possibly get any worse. "I"m going to give you the biggest headache you've had in... well, pretty much forever."

"Pfft," Naruto snorted. "I don't know, that thing with Itachi is going to be pretty hard to top."

"I'm that good," the clone threatened. Turning away from the blond boy, she shot Temari a grin. "We should do this again some time. It's been fun."

"Wait, don't..!" the blonde girl started, only to be cut off as the girl turned back towards Naruto.

"Sayonara sucker," she smirked, tossing the boy a wave before releasing her hold over her chakra. Naruko poofed.

Naruto staggered back under the sudden onrush of memory and feeling. His foot caught on a corner of the rug in the middle of the living room floor and he could have smashed head-first into the table behind him, had Hinata not been there to steady him. "Are you ok, Naruto-kun?" she asked quietly.

"I think so," the boy slurred, attempting and failing to sort the memories that had slammed head-long into his mind. A small laugh across from him drew his attention towards where Temari was shaking her head and looking around.

"Ok, I'll admit it, you two got me pretty good with that act. I don't know how you managed to coordinate it, but that was good," she grinned. "So, where'd the real one go?"

Naruto opened his mouth to ask 'What real one' but paused mid-thought. The boy's mouth snapped closed and he shot Hinata a helpless look. The girl in question turned her attention towards where the sandy-haired blonde had poked her head into the downstairs bathroom and was obviously looking around for the clone's creator. "Temari-chan," she called, drawing the girl's attention. Seeing the small smile on the ex-Hyuuga girl's face, Temari paused in her search. "That was the real one. Well, the only one, really."

Taking in a slow breath, the girl's eyes drifted over towards Naruto. If she were to be honest with herself, she had known the truth the moment the clone had apologized. "It was him the whole time, wasn't it?"

"In a way," Hinata allowed.

"Stop doing that!" Temari growled, finally getting fed up with the way they had been wording things. It didn't help that she'd actually grown fond of hearing it from Na—the _clone_. Even as the thought occurred, her eyes widened slightly as her gaze shifted between Naruto and Hinata. "Solid henge isn't possible," she denied quietly, even though she knew it could be the only explanation. There was no possible way that the other girl could have been anything other than exactly that—another girl.

"I'm sorry," Hinata disagreed quietly, releasing her hold on Naruto long enough to form seals and take on the form of the clone that had just dispersed. A moment later, she dropped the henge.

"So, what? Was this all some big joke?" Temari asked. Her attention was drawn to where Isaribi had shrugged.

"I didn't want to ruin it for him. Her.. whatever," the girl answered quietly.

Temari's eyes jerked back towards Hinata as the smaller girl spoke up quietly. "Not _all_ of it. Though that is how it started out—as a prank on both you and Naruto himself."

"It wasn't fucking funny," the girl murmured, turning and heading up the stairs.

"That could have gone better," Haku sighed softly.

Anko snickered. "Got to hand it to you brat, it was pretty damn funny."

Beside the older kunoichi, Tenten shot the older trio of kunoichi—minus Yuugao—a suspicious look. "So, that's what you were so worried about us overhearing?"

"Yeah, and you'll keep your mouth shut about it or I'll shut it for you," Anko threatened the younger girl, though there was no heat behind her words. Not that there needed to be with Anko.

"So, what now Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked, sweeping her eyes across to take in the group at large.

Tsunade sighed, annoyed at having to get down to business first thing. "Tomorrow, we start those two," she said, pointing towards Naruto and Hinata, "on chakra-control exercises. And _you_," this time she pointed towards Anko, "will teach me how to do that goddamned henge."

"You'll never get it, you old hag," Anko smirked, sticking her tongue out at the Sannin—only to quickly reel it in as the older woman's hand flashed out and nearly grabbed it.

"_What_ did you call me?" the Sannin growled, fists clenching and her knuckles popping ominously.

The impending fight was interrupted by a cough from nearby. Turning, Tsunade regarded Temari, who had returned from the upstairs part of the home. The Suna-kunoichi held a bound scroll out to the one-time Hokage. "Sabaku no Temari reporting as ordered by the Kazekage," she announced herself formally.

Shooting Anko one last glare, Tsunade sighed out her annoyance and accepted the scroll. "Thank you," she said, pocketing the scroll and waving the girl off. "Ok, it's been a long day. I'm tired, dirty, and too annoyed to put up with any more bullshit tonight." That said, she turned away from the group and headed into the kitchen. Spotting the alcohol cabinet—though it was more of a sake cabinet, since that was about all that she had stocked it with—she smacked her lips and smiled. Opening the cabinet, she surveyed its contents. _'Someone's been busy while we were away,'_ she noted idly.

Before Tsunade could make her choice, a hand snaked past her and wrapped itself around the neck of a bottle of sweet sake. She turned to follow the hand to its owner and found Temari shooting her a look _daring_ her to say something. When she Sannin said nothing, the Suna-kunoichi nodded slightly and made her way silently towards the bath. She had already had one bath that night, but that didn't mean she couldn't sit in the tub and mope for a while anyway. Opening the door to the downstairs bath, she found it occupied by the other kunoichi of the group—save for Tsunade, who was apparently still trying to decide what to get. Stripping down, she settled down between Hinata and Tenten and poured herself a saucer of sake. A hand coming into her field of vision caused her eyes to narrow and she barely pulled the bottle out of Anko's reach in time. "Get your own," she grumbled.

"Ah come on, you're a guest here. You should share. Besides, it's not like you can drink all of that by yourself," the older kunoichi pointed out.

Temari smirked. "Want to bet?" she asked quietly.

Anko's issue of a challenge was interrupted by Tsunade sliding into the water nearby. Glancing over at the Sannin, she asked, "She won't share and you didn't bring anything?"

Tsunade shrugged. "I changed my mind," she answered, yawning as she stretched out under water.

* * *

Naruto yawned as one of his new ears twitched, swiveling towards the floor and the muffled conversation going on below in the downstairs bath. Deciding he had soaked long enough, the boy stood and pulled the handle to drain the tub. Grabbing a towel off the top of a small stack of them on the edge of the counter, the boy set about drying off. A glance at his sodden tail had the boy wishing for a swift return to something approaching a normal level of chakra control, if only to be able to pull water out of the thing as opposed to having to towel-dry it. Once the appendage was dry enough to call it done, he wrapped the towel around himself and opened the bathroom door, only to nearly smack face-first into Haku—the older boy clad in a towel from the armpits down.

"Sorry Haku," Naruto apologized as the pair switched places.

"It's no problem, Naruto-kun," the boy waved the blond off, quickly slipping into the bathroom and closing the door behind himself.

Shrugging off the other boy's apparent hurry as either a need to relieve bodily functions or a desire to wash off from traveling, the blond made his way back to his room. Sliding the door closed, the boy felt his nose twitch involuntarily as several things assaulted his enhanced sense of smell at once. _'Someone came home drunk,'_ the boy mused, even as the memory of Naruko returning home with Temari on more than one occasion swam to the forefront of his mind. With the memory came the feelings attached to it, causing the boy to wince as he was forcibly reminded of things another version of himself had experienced and held dear. Temari's scent permeating the room did absolutely nothing to help the boy clear his mind. _'It was just a clone,'_ he reminded himself as he slipped on a pair of boxers and dropped onto his futon. Finding that the bedding smelled even more strongly of the blonde girl further frustrated the boy.

Naruto was unsurprised and a little relieved when the door slid open quietly and a familiar figure entered the room nearly an hour later. Closing the door, Hinata padded across the room and dropped down onto the futon beside the boy, who scooted over to make room for her. "Couldn't sleep?" she asked as she made herself comfortable—a task which mostly involved molding herself as close to the blond as possible. She felt more than saw him nod. Humming softly, she brought her lips down against the side of his neck, feeling the boy stiffen for a moment before relaxing against her. "She won't be angry for long," she murmured loud enough for him to hear.

"That isn't it," Naruto admitted quietly, though he quickly amended himself with, "Well, not all of it."

"You're worried you hurt her?" she asked, though Hinata already knew the answer. The boy's nod confirmed it. "That wasn't what she—what you meant to do."

"Doesn't change the fact that I did."

The smaller girl nodded. "Then make it up to her."

Naruto snorted softly. "What, 'sorry I left a clone out and she went kind of funny in the head, lied to you to make you think she wasn't a clone, and kissed you because she thought it would make a great prank?' I don't think that's going to go over well. Oh, let's not forget the 'sorry my clone-pretending-to-be-my-sister saw you naked and slept with you' part." The boy's venting ground to a halt when he felt the girl pressed against his back shake softly and the quiet sound of barely suppressed laughter reached his ears. "What?"

"It _is_ kind of funny," the girl managed to get out around quiet giggles.

Crossing his arms over his chest, the boy shook his head. "No it's not. It was mean." The boy was unprepared for the sudden pain of a set of teeth sinking into the meat of his shoulder, though he could tell she hadn't drawn blood. That didn't mean that it didn't hurt, however. "Ow! What was that for?!"

Giving the flesh between her teeth one last squeeze, Hinata released her hold on the boy and poked him sharpy in the back. "It _was_ funny. When Temari gets over being upset, she'll think so too."

Naruto bit his lip in thought before asking, "You think so?"

Hinata nodded. "I know so," she answered softly. A moment later, she covered her mouth as she yawned. "Good night, Naruto-kun," she murmured, effectively ending the conversation.

"Mm," the boy nodded, his mind still turning over what the girl had said. "Hinata-chan?" he asked some time later, getting a sleepy murmur in question. "Thanks," he added quietly. Feeling the girl nod against his back, the boy allowed his eyes to drift closed and gave up trying to sort through the things he had been hit with that night—memories and consequences alike. Both would still be there in the morning anyway. Though had he known better, the boy would have stayed up as long as it took to finish the task of sorting through everything. Unfortunately—or perhaps very fortunately, Naruto would one day realize—he neither knew enough to worry nor had any reason to resist the lure of sleep long enough to try.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Thanks go out to Kaiya, Lukems, and Zen Shoshi for pre-reading this for me to make sure it wasn't hemorrhage-inducingly lame. Not much to say on this chapter except to apologize for the delay. I recently came down with a bad case of full-time employment and have since found my writing time cut short. That and writer's block kept this one from getting out as soon as it should have. I got stuck wondering how to resolve the Naruko-issue.

In other news, I had to come to a decision about what I plan to do with this story. It was a hard choice, but ultimately I find myself lacking both the time and motivation to continue writing. As of this update, I am ceasing work on The Missing Hokage. ...Just kidding. I will warn you though that the next update may take a month. Or three. Between work five days a week and trying to level my were-fox to 9x in Perfect World, I'm kind of busy. Well, I don't spend _that _much time in PW. An hour and a half, two at most on weekdays and however long it takes to finish Beehive in addition to that on weekends. That, and I read a lot, so my free time usually isn't spent writing unless I'm really in the mood for it. So, again, the next update may take forever and a day but there will be a next update. Skipping ahead to the Author's Notes on CED: don't worry, I haven't lost momentum much—I'm just splitting my attention between too many projects (at least three stories taking up my writing time—only one of those being posted at the moment, that being TMH) and making excuses again. Though now that I've read that I feel kind of like an ass for doing my usual thing. Some of you know better than others just how well I can procrastinate, huh Ken?

As an additional warning, I have nothing for the next chapter. Nothing written, not even a vague idea of what I want to put in it, nothing. (Though as of this editing, I may have a _vague_ idea what I want to do since someone took the liberty of pissing me off... I mean properly motivating me to respond in the best way I know how.) I have an idea of where I want to go with the next arc but other than that, not much for the next chapter or two unless I want to skip straight to the exodus. I think I may mention some training, pull a small time skip, and maybe make up a treasure hunt. I've had a vague idea for one floating around for a while now but no real idea of where to put it. That, and I have a side-trip out to Mist I want to make some time soon...

As for Yuugao joining the group now... well, that wasn't intentional. I honestly had no idea what to do with Yuugao, except to have her join after Jiraiya showed up with the others. I honestly had no intention of putting her in right now—mainly because I haven't got an idea of her personality yet and don't have anywhere to stick her in the group. Sure, I could borrow Lionheart's, but that feels like cheating. I didn't do it with Hana and I don't particularly want to with Yuugao. About the only thing I can think of though is someone who is ultra-serious and competent on missions but mostly laid-back the rest of the time (which is what Hayate strikes me as from what little we see of him in the anime/manga and it makes sense that she would either be something similiar or almost a polar opposite to that, him being her at-the-time boyfriend before he got offed by Baki). Some kind of middle ground between Kurenai—who seems to keep her job and her personal life separate as much as she can, but seems like a serious person most of the time unless she's around friends—and Anko or Hana—almost never serious unless it involves sticking something pointy and sharp in someone else, Hana being the more extreme of the two on that front. *shrug* I'll think of something.

So, yeah, no more Naruko. At least not for a while anyway. What, you didn't think I'd just kill off that much potential, did you? I have an idea or two floating around. And I was tempted to write out more on the wandering-redhead, but decided against it. I was actually halfway into it before I stopped and decided using her to bash home a point or two would be overkill. It may become an every-other-chapter thing.

On a side note: since my windows partition on my old laptop died and I'm doing everything from a new laptop (on vista, no less. blech. May format this crap again and dual-install xp and ubuntu like I have/had with the old one, if I can find xp-compatible drivers), I'm having to rebuild my dictionaries from scratch. Sucks cause I repair computers for money and the idea that fixing my own would be too much like _work_ is the only thing really keeping me from doing it. Sure, the old laptop was partitioned to dual-boot xp and ubuntu, but all the stuff for writing was in the xp partition. Luckily, I keep all my data on three or four external hard drives and one of those small usb drives, so unless I really screw something up I won't lose everything in one go. ...knock wood..


	23. Back to the Grindstone

**The Missing Hokage**

**23: Back to the Grindstone**

* * *

Naruto woke slowly, entirely too warm and comfortable to rush headlong into another day. Feeling a soft puff of warm breath against the back of his neck, the still only partially-conscious boy smiled and shifted back against Hinata, who was still pressed firmly against his back from the night before. Fighting off the urge to get up and go to the bathroom as it would simply require too much effort and would force him to leave the warmth of their shared futon for the cold air of the rest of the house, the boy stretched out... and paused as exactly where Hinata's arms were registered in his sleep-fogged brain. Her right arm was resting beneath his neck and the pillow, stretched straight out towards the edge of the futon. Her left arm, however, was wrapped firmly around his midsection. Consciousness returned quickly as he realized where the _rest_ of that arm rested and exactly where her hand was. As if she had heard his thoughts and had felt it would be amusing to confirm his suspicions, her left hand squeezed the part of his anatomy it had been grasping in her sleep for who knew how long.

Naruto squeaked quietly, blue eyes going wide as panic started to set in—a reaction ingrained by years of exposure to a certain pink-haired kunoichi. Any minute now, she would wake up and do one of any number of violent and painful things to him. She would punch the shit out of him. No, this situation was bad enough that that simply wouldn't be enough. She would kill him. No, still not bad enough. She would destroy what she found in her hand and _then_ she would kill him, but only after punching the shit out of him. As the majority of Naruto's mind descended further into panic, the small part of his mind not devoted to that or to secretly enjoying the girl's touch radiated a growing annoyance. Just as he was tensing to bolt from the futon—his flight instinct finally overcoming his panic—his body and mind forcibly stilled, the panic dissipating like fog in a stiff breeze. Hinata _wasn't_ Sakura. She may be upset, but it was unlikely she would do more than blush and apologize. And he was being stupid for thinking otherwise.

He blinked as his body relaxed—well, the majority of it, at any rate. Before he could turn his mind towards figuring out where that impulse had come from—Hinata's hand down his boxers almost completely forgotten—the girl behind him stirred, yawning and releasing her hold on him as she stretched both arms above her head. Beneath the sheets, Naruto felt something stir against his leg and realized that the girl's stretch had reached all the way down to the tip of her tail, apparently. "Good morning, Naruto-kun," Hinata murmured sleepily. Naruto started to answer but was cut off as Hinata leaned up, forcibly rolled the boy onto his back, and dropped the upper half of her body back down to rest against his chest. His mind temporarily distracted by the breasts pressed firmly to his chest, he failed to notice the girl's lips descending on his own until it was too late to do anything about it. Several moments later, she broke the kiss and smiled. "I think I prefer waking up like this," she grinned, getting only a dazed nod from Naruto—the earlier incident entirely wiped from his mind for the moment.

The event was further shoved from the boy's mind by the sound of the door sliding open, followed immediately by the sight of a dark-haired kunoichi poking her head into the room. "So... I interrupting anything?" Anko asked, shooting the pair a leer, her tone half teasing and half hopeful—at least to Hinata's ears.

"Yes," Hinata deadpanned, not looking away from Naruto.

"Sucks for you," Anko returned with a shrug, before snickering and adding, "Or doesn't."

"We're busy, go away," the ex-Hyuuga turned a momentary glare towards the door before turning her attention back to the blond beneath her.

Anko shook her head. "Sorry, kiddo. If you're going to molest him, I suggest getting up earlier to do it tomorrow. Now come on. As much as I hate being up this early, that old hag wants to keep us to a pretty tight schedule."

The girl atop him sighed, doing all sorts of interesting things that momentarily drew Naruto's attention away from the kunoichi in the doorway to the one still sprawled across him. "I remember," Hinata rolled her eyes. Tsunade had made her intentions very clear in the bath last night once the majority of the group—save for Naruto and Haku—had settled in. The boy below her shifted slightly, drawing her attention fully back to him and sending her mind down a side-path to that thought. _'I should convince Naruto-kun to share the bath with us,'_ she mused, wondering how to get the idea to fly with the others. Her train of thought was abruptly cut off and her attention drawn back to the here and now as the kunoichi behind her vacated her position in the doorway but did not bother to close the door behind her. _'She probably left it open to discourage me,'_ she hummed, pecking Naruto on the lips quickly before standing and helping him to his feet. A quick glance down brought a blush to her face but she forcibly stifled any more visible reaction than that to the noticeable tent Naruto had pitched in his boxers. "I'll meet you downstairs," she said quickly, ducking out of the boy's room for her own room, tail waving behind her as it disappeared out the door.

Shaking himself out of his momentary stupor, Naruto glanced around for a change of clothes before remembering that he would need to have them altered and only had one set that was already modified to allow his tail through the back, and those were pretty filthy. Digging out an older pair of orange pants, he found a kunai and cut the back of them open before slipping them on. They were a little tighter and shorter than he remembered, but nothing that would be uncomfortable or impede his movement for the day. Bringing his hands together into the seal for kage bunshin the boy produced a single clone, though he had used enough chakra for at least five with what would have passed for normal chakra control for him—when the same amount of chakra would have produced closer to twenty clones for a ninja with average control and reserves. Gathering the original's clothes, the clone nodded towards his creator before opening the window and heading out towards the town and, presumably, Dane's shop to have them altered professionally as opposed to the very sloppy job Naruto had done himself. And while he _could_ alter them himself, it would take doing it the long way—with a needle and thread, by hand—as opposed to just using chakra to fix it.

Stepping out of his room, Naruto nearly ran into a slightly taller blonde form. "Ah, sorry. Wasn't watching where I was going Temari-ch—"

"Finish that and die," the Suna kunoichi cut the boy off flatly, maneuvering around Naruto and continuing down the hall to the stairs.

The sound of a door opening beside him drew the boy's gaze to where Hinata was just leaving her own room, having changed into a fresh set of clothes for the day. Seeing the girl standing there, Naruto blinked for a moment before sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "Ah, crap. I sent a clone off to Dane's already with my clothes. I forgot you would need to have yours altered too, Hinata-chan."

Hinata shook her head, sending him a smile and snagging his arm by the elbow to pull him along towards the stairs. "It's ok, Naruto-kun. I heard you make yours, so I sent one too." Seeing the boy sigh in relief, her smile widened slightly. The sounds of carefully-orchestrated chaos reached their ears from downstairs, alerting the pair to the group of ninja making use of the kitchen. "Don't worry too much about Temari-chan," Hinata murmured low enough not to be heard by the others, but still loud enough for the boy to pick up. "Remember what I told you last night."

"Right," Naruto nodded. Any further conversation along that line was cut off as the pair entered the kitchen and took in the sight that greeted them. Tsunade sat at the head of the table, an open seat to her left and a pair of open seats at her right. In the next seats down on her left, Tenten and Haku sat, both already over halfway through their plates. Beside Haku, on the end of the table furthest from the two empty seats, Temari sat slowly working through her own breakfast. In the first occupied chair on Tsunade's right, Anko sat taking the odd bite between words, catching Yuugao up on the events that had taken place since Team Hokage left Konoha. The seat to Anko's immediate right was vacant, presumably for the woman currently cooking breakfast for the group. In the next seat down, Isaribi sat splitting her attention between her own breakfast, listening to Anko, and glancing over some written notes while trying not to spill her breakfast on them. Seeing the pair enter, the Sannin waved them towards the chairs on her immediate right.

Beside her, Hinata felt Naruto's entire body shake for a moment before calming down again. Glancing over and slightly up at his face, she saw his lips turned up into one of the largest _real_ smiles she'd ever seen on the boy's face. Releasing her light hold on his elbow, her hand drifted down to catch his own, giving it a small squeeze and drawing his attention long enough to catch her own smile. _'So, this is what it's like to have a family,'_ the boy mused as the idea of family once more nearly blindsided him, pulling out his own and Hinata's chair before sitting down. "Thanks for saving us a seat."

"You're welcome, Naruto-kun," Shizune answered the boy, placing a plate in front of him and one in front of Hinata before returning to the stove and taking another pair of plates from Yuugao, who was just cutting off the burners on the stove. Setting one plate in front of the empty seat beside Anko, Shizune rounded the table and took the seat to Tsunade's immediate left as Yuugao washed her hands and took her own seat.

"So, what's the plan for today?" Naruto asked, turning his attention to Tsunade. He had a general idea of what the Sannin had in mind, but he wanted more specific details so he would know if he could spare enough clones to try a few ideas of his own. Seeing the nearly predatory smirk cross the eldest blonde's face, Naruto gulped. Whatever she had in mind, he had a feeling he would be sore by this time tomorrow.

"Well, for starters..."

* * *

The bell over the door chimed, drawing the retired shinobi's attention away from the catalog of standard, mass-produced outer-wear for ninja that he usually ordered his standard stock from. It made for good bulk stock to sell to ninja just passing through and looking to restock, but not willing to take the time to have something custom made—which is where he actually made the majority of his sales and what took up most of his time, or had until Team Hokage showed up and Naruto had started helping with that, freeing up the older shinobi to work on other aspects of his business. Looking up, he grinned as he caught sight of a familiar orange-clad blond boy and the dark haired girl with him. The grin slipped somewhat as his eyes registered several extra features on the pair that had not been there the last time he had seen them—or clones of them, in the blond's case. A set of red-furred, pointed ears jutted out from Naruto's mass of unruly blond hair. Lower, he saw that the marks that had once decorated the boy's face like the signs of fox-possession were gone, replaced by an actual set of three whiskers per cheek. And from behind the boy, he caught sight of something red swinging just above the floor of his shop. Behind Naruto, the girl he recognized as a Hyuuga—former Hyuuga, if word around the town was correct— sported similar features, though the fur adorning her ears and tail was the same shade as her hair.

"What the hell?" the old ninja asked, forgetting tact for the moment.

"Good to see you too," Naruto snickered, drawing a quiet giggle from the girl at his side.

Seeing the bundle of clothes both of them carried, Dane shot the pair a suspicious look before asking, "It's not a henge, is it?"

"Nun uh," Hinata answered, shaking her head and bringing her tail up to wave at the ninja-turned-tailor for emphasis.

"Do I even want to know?" the retired ninja sighed.

Naruto shrugged. "Probably not."

Dane nodded. "Thought not." Taking in the two once more, he gestured towards the counter, inviting them to put their bundles of clothes down. "Go lock the door," he directed towards Naruto before turning his attention to Hinata. "Anything I should know about, besides the obvious?"

"You should probably make a new set of measurements," the girl suggested.

"That bad?"

Hinata shook her head. "Not quite, but it's noticeable."

"Wonder what that did for your hand-eye coordination," the old ninja mused aloud.

The girl smiled. "Not much good at all."

"I keep overextending," Naruto shrugged, following Dane as he lead them into the back of the shop. "It'll take some getting used to."

After a moment of thought, the retired ninja shrugged. "Well, on the bright side, it gives you an excuse to work on your taijutsu."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto asked, his tone suspicious.

Dane snorted. "You've been in and out of here enough that I know you aren't the most graceful of ninja, kid." Seeing the blond start to fume, Dane chuckled and shook his head. "Don't worry about it too much. I'm sure that shishou of yours has something in mind to help with that."

"That's what worries me," the boy grumped. Though this clone did not have updated memories from the Naruto at breakfast, he had a sneaking suspicion that Tsunade would be doing her damnedest to run himself and Hinata into the ground, and probably the others as well just for the hell of it.

"Why don't you put some of that time you wasted here to good use and start taking new measurements," Dane suggested, tossing his measuring tape towards the blond while beginning to take inventory of the clothes the pair had brought in.

Snagging the tape out of the air, Naruto shot a questioning look towards Dane before realization of what the old shinobi intended for him to do dawned. "Wait, you want me to...?" he started, trailing off and shooting a side-long glance at Hinata, who looked back innocently—though the boy could swear he saw the corners of her mouth fighting to curve into a smile for just a moment.

"Unless you'd rather I do it," Dane shrugged, pausing as he found a somewhat dirty pair of pants belonging to the boy. Fingering the hole in the rear of the pants, he frowned thoughtfully. He knew the boy knew how to take care of such an alteration to keep it from fraying and tearing the material. The only reason he could think of for Naruto not to have simply fixed this and altered them all himself was that he could not any more—at least, not the easy way. Deciding not to ask, he glanced back over his shoulder at where Naruto still stood motionless. "Well? I don't have all day, you know."

Taking the blond by the elbow, Hinata guided him out of the back room towards one of the changing rooms in the front of the shop. "What are you doing?" he asked, nervousness practically radiating off of him.

Opening one of the changing rooms, Hinata lead him inside before closing and locking the door. Turning back towards the blond, she smiled. "Show me how to do it," she said simply.

"I'm not getting out of this, am I?" Naruto asked carefully. Seeing her shake her head, he sighed in resignation and steeled his nerves. "You have to... um..." he started before glancing away and rushing the last part out all in one go and nearly inaudibly, "takeoffyourclothes."

"Ok," Hinata chirped, hands reaching up and quickly finding the zipper to her jacket. She nearly drew blood—and subsequently nearly dispersed herself—biting her lip to contain her laughter when the boy turned around to face the other way. Folding her jacket neatly, she placed it on the small bench against the room's rear wall, followed closely by her shirt and pants. "Naruto-kun, I really doubt you can take any measurements looking the other way," she softly chided the boy, amusement slipping into her voice despite her best efforts.

"Easy for you to say," the boy murmured, turning his head around to peek at her over his shoulder. His entire body froze as his eyes unconsciously widened and burned the image before him into his mind. Hinata stood barely arm's-length away—all the cramped changing rooms would really allow—in all her glory, pale skin nearly glowing in the low light provided by the overhead light, and a faint pink tinge trailing from her face all the way down to the tops of her bare breasts. Shaking himself out of it a moment later, Naruto jerked his head back around. "I didn't mean you had to take everything off!" he nearly yelled.

"I wasn't wearing anything under my clothes to begin with, Naruto-kun," the girl giggled.

"Why not?!" he managed to get out.

Hinata shrugged. "It would be a waste to ruin a set of panties when I could just go without for now."

Unable to argue against the logic of that statement, Naruto nodded his agreement. "A-alright then, I'm going to start," the boy murmured, hoping the task of teaching Hinata how to repeat the process on him would distract him from his embarrassment. It never occurred to the blond that he could have just created another clone and measured himself and let Dane take Hinata's measurements instead. Then again, something about the older shinobi's suggestion that he do so had unsettled him at the time, though the boy couldn't pin down exactly why. It wasn't like the retiree would try to take advantage of the situation or something... though, for some reason, even the possibility of that really pissed him off when the thought did finally skitter across his distracted mind.

On the other end of things, Hinata smiled faintly and tried to keep her body under control—fighting dual urges to either faint or grab the blond and continue where they had left off that morning and try reenacting some of her favorite fantasies. As the boy crammed into the small changing booth with her did his best to ignore her body while performing a task which pretty much guaranteed he could not, she turned her mind once more towards making the blond her own. When Tsunade had first offered her apprenticeship and time away from Konoha—at the cost of leaving that village, most likely for good—Hinata had jumped at the chance, realizing that it would be the best shot she had of gaining the boy's attention and winning his affection.

With Sakura out of the picture, he would all but be forced to notice her, even if she didn't actively pursue him and had instead stayed the course she had set herself on before Tsunade had made her proposal—that is, improving herself and hoping to find a chance to show the boy how she'd grown one day. Being in forced close proximity with the boy had quickly changed her mind about how to go about accomplishing her goal though. Looking at it tactically, she had decided that a series of small, repeated strikes against the boy's conditioned defenses—no doubt built up due to a certain pink-haired girl's actions—would put him off guard enough for an eventual final attack. Slipping into the boy's sleeping bag or futon, the occasional compromising situation, a kiss here and there—each of these was a small battle won, each slowly eroding the boy's conditioned responses to contact with members of the opposite sex.

All of which lead back to the ex-Hyuuga heiress snatching up the opportunity offered by the retired-ninja-turned-shopkeep and running full-tilt with it—one big, final push before the real thing. _'Just a little more,'_ she mused as Naruto finished explaining. She hadn't been paying all that much attention to the actual explanation as she had been to enough fittings for formal dress for various events over the years that she had been able to take her own measurements for several years now—she simply enjoyed the sound of the boy's voice, not to mention his presence. "My turn?" she asked, pulling the tape measure from Naruto's hand and not so much as sending a glance towards her own pile of neatly folded clothes as the boy before her shot a glance between girl and clothes and opened his mouth to voice a question before thinking better of it, blushing and beginning to disrobe.

_'Today is going to be a long day,'_ was the boy's last coherent thought as Hinata's hands and the tape measure closed in on him, the small triumphant smirk briefly crossing her lips not nearly as distracting as the rest of her.

* * *

The sound of water slowly filling a tub filled the upstairs bathroom as Naruto undressed. Moving somewhat stiffly, he pulled his somewhat-abused shirt over his head before kicking his boxers—the only piece of clothing that had managed to come out of the day's training mostly-unscathed—off to the side. Cutting off the flow of water, he settled down into the tub with a quiet groan. His body going as limp as possible without being unconscious or dead, he slipped completely under the water. Closing his eyes, the blond fought the urge to drift off to sleep like this.

Any chance of accidentally nodding off underwater was ruled out when the boy's sharp ears picked up the sound of the bathroom door opening and footfalls against the tile of the bathroom floor—distorted as they were with an earful (several, actually) of water. Sitting up slowly, Naruto quietly exhaled the breath he'd been holding and focused on his bath-time intruder. Spotting a familiar dark-haired form, the blond rolled his eyes. "You know Haku, we really have to stop meeting like this," he grinned.

The ninja in question flinched nearly imperceptibly, hand jerking towards thigh for a weapon at the first syllable out of the other boy's mouth. Registering the presence as a friendly, the missing-nin's apprentice relaxed somewhat, pulling the shirt that had been opened and lowered to mid-back at that point back up and closed, giving Naruto only a brief glance at the wrapped bandages under it. "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. The door was unlocked and I assumed you had already finished."

"Don't worry about it," the blond shrugged, though he could have sworn he had locked the door. Shaking it off, he continued. "Though we wouldn't have this problem if you'd knock like a normal person."

"But I'm not a normal person," Haku pointed out, smiling down at the blond. "Neither are you, for that matter."

Scratching the back of his head, Naruto had the decency to blush. "Good point," the foxy blond murmured. Deciding to shift the focus elsewhere, he asked, "So, are you going to go or were you planning to stand there and watch me take a bath?"

"I'd prefer to sit," the dark-haired nin retorted, completely straight-faced, and made to take a seat on a nearby wash stool.

Blinking, Naruto rolled his eyes before reaching to the side and grabbing his sponge and hurling it at the older ninja. "Scram!"

Catching the dry sponge with one hand, Haku stood. "As you wish."

"And you can leave the sponge," Naruto added quickly, seeing that the dark-haired youth seemed to be intending to leave with it.

"Are you sure?" Haku asked, turning around to send the blond a questioning look.

"Yeah, I kind of need it," Naruto deadpanned. Nodding, Haku padded over to the sink and turned on the cold water tap, holding the sponge under it. Seeing this, the blond asked warily, "What are you doing?"

"Returning your sponge," Haku answered, shooting the blond boy a mischievous grin worthy of one of his own before flinging the cold, soggy sponge at the boy and catching him full in the chest with it, eliciting a girly shriek and a splash as Naruto quickly ducked underwater to regain some of the warmth lost in that attack. "Have a nice bath," Haku called out loudly enough for Naruto to hear clearly before slipping out of the room before the blond could recover and seek revenge.

Slowly peeking his head above the water line and looking around for any other attacks, the blond sent a glare at the door. "This isn't over," he growled, his words garbled by the water just under his nose. After a moment of watching the door to make sure he wasn't going to be interrupted again in the next few minutes, Naruto huffed out an annoyed breath and tried to decide whether he wanted to soak a bit longer or finish things up and get to bed. On the one hand, he was sore all over—courtesy of a certain over-enthusiastic special-jonin having far too much fun with her assignment—and desperately wanted to relax for a while. On the other hand, he was actually tired for a change and he could hear the siren-song of sleep calling already. Besides, Hinata would probably either be waiting for him or would join him in bed shortly after he got in, and he had gotten used to sleeping with her—she was warm and soft and comfortable... His mind made up, Naruto went about cleaning the day's filth off since he had opted to skip showering before his soak.

Naruto's body shifted to auto-pilot as his mind wandered off of the task at hand and found more interesting things to focus on in the events of the last twelve or so hours. The day had started off on a weird note with Hinata's hand down his boxers—he twitched at the memory—and had only gotten worse for the most part. Bumping into Temari (literally) had been awkward, but somewhat expected. Getting to see Hinata naked had pretty much blind-sided him and after that, he was too shell shocked to put up a fight when it was his turn to strip. Though, now that the thought occurred as to whether or not he minded, he found he really, really didn't. Sure, it had been a bit embarrassing at the time, but he'd been more embarrassed when he had been unable to produce bunshin and had subsequently failed the genin exam. And, like that event, there had been a spectacular trade off—he had passed after dealing with Mizuki and, in this case, Hinata was _really_ pretty. As an afterthought, he added that she had seemed more confident about the whole thing than he had.

Shaking his head to clear that image from his mind, the boy winced slightly as one of his many pulled muscles reminded him exactly why he'd opted for a hot bath in the first place. Knowing they would be be fine by the morning—though more than likely, it would take less than a full night's sleep for the swelling and such to return to normal—didn't do him any good right now. And that took his mind mostly away from replaying images of a nude Hinata and focused it on the day's training. _'Anko was having way too much fun with us,'_ he mused, though he couldn't really complain since it was some of the best physical training he'd gotten in his entire shinobi career. ...Then again, given his previous teachers, that wasn't saying much. The teachers in the academy had focused mostly on stealth (something he had in spades by the time he was nine—after all, how else would someone run around a village full of ninja while wearing neon orange and still manage to evade chuunin and the occasional jonin trying to hunt him down for his pranks), history (which he slept through, unless they were talking about the Kages or ninja wars), mathematics (which he also slept through for the most part, since he understood the easy stuff and saw no real use for the advanced stuff), a few minor sciences such as biology and chemistry (he paid attention only long enough to learn where to hit or stick kunai and shuriken, that some things went boom when mixed together and others were poisonous all on their own), and two hours of physical training every other day (which turned out to be a joke with people like Ino, Sakura, and Choji who either needed to stop every few minutes or just didn't participate half the time). Kakashi had them spar maybe twice a week, and it had never been for long—mostly, he had seemed focused on doing missions. Ero-sennin had been a great jutsu instructor, but hadn't focused on much else besides summoning, drawing out the fox's chakra, and rasengan. The special-jonin in question had—under Tsunade's orders—run himself and Hinata ragged for most of the day, occasionally switching them out with Tenten and Haku whenever the three of them needed a break. Tenten had never favored taijutsu—not that she wasn't competent at it when she had to use it, she just preferred to use ranged weapons over hand-to-hand combat—and Haku was still recovering, so mostly they worked on forms when they weren't working on something else in one of the other subgroups that had been formed that morning to split instruction as evenly as possible between the older kunoichi of the group.

Slapping the lever to drain the tub, Naruto stood and grabbed his towel. As the hair along his tail stuck to his leg the moment they touched, Naruto glared at it in annoyance and was again reminded that he had been unable to make any headway getting his chakra back under control. Sure, he didn't exactly expect results overnight, but he had hoped for at least _something_. The thing with blowing the water away in the stream had gotten his hopes up, but he had been unable to duplicate that success today. Deciding to simply put more effort into it the next day, and the day after, and so on until he _did_ see some progress, Naruto finished drying and made his way into his room and into bed. He hadn't been in bed more than half an hour before one of his ears flicked towards the sound of footsteps outside his door. The sound of the door sliding open drew him further away from the edge of sleep, quickly followed by the sound of the door sliding closed and quiet footsteps crossing the room towards the bed. "Hinata-chan?" the boy questioned, yawning as he rolled over onto his back and cracked one eye open at the feeling of weight on the bed.

"Wrong," a girl's voice clarified before he felt hands grab his wrists and secure them above his head.

Naruto's eyes snapped open and the boy came fully awake. Not sensing any killing intent, he didn't struggle as the girl—clad only in a damp towel and her hair down and still a bit moist—settled herself on his stomach and glared down at him. "Temari-ch—"

"You don't want to finish that," Temari interrupted, just enough killing intent behind the words to drive her point home.

"Ok, I won't," Naruto agreed. "So, why are you here?"

"I wanted to talk," she answered simply.

Nodding again, Naruto grinned. "Sure, we can talk. Do you mind letting my hands go first?"

"Yes," the Suna kunoichi deadpanned. "I like them where they are and you don't need them to talk." Seeing the boy beneath her roll his eyes, she asked, "So, give me one good reason why I shouldn't just kill you now. Or at the least, wound."

"Um," Naruto hummed, gnawing his bottom lip in thought as his mind blanked on coming up with an answer. After a few minutes of thought, with Temari growing increasingly agitated—though he didn't know it, it was because Naruko had done the same thing and it was only serving to further drive the point home for the girl, he finally admitted, "I've got nothing." Huffing out a frustrated sigh, Temari resisted the urge to smack the boy beneath her, if only because it would mean letting go of one of his hands or trying to hold them both in one of hers. Wrinkling his nose, Naruto asked, "You've been drinking again, haven't you?"

"Yes. Going to tell me off for it?"

"Wasn't planning to," the boy answered, shaking his head. "So, was that all you wanted?" he asked, having grown somewhat uncomfortable.

Nearly growling, Temari ground out, "Gods, how can one person be so dense?"

"What?"

"Never mind," the girl grumbled. The sound of light footsteps approaching from down the hall reached her ears and she tensed slightly. _'Now or never,'_ she sighed, steeling her resolve and leaning the rest of the way down to press her lips against the boy beneath her.

"Wha—" Naruto murmured, only to have his question cut off. A moment later, the Suna kunoichi broke the kiss and pushed herself away from him before nearly jumping out of the futon. The door to the bedroom opened and Hinata paused on her way in, shooting a questioning look between Temari and Naruto before turning a smile towards the older blonde.

"Got everything sorted out?"

Quickly stepping past the smaller girl, Temari snorted. "Not _hardly_," she mumbled under her breath, barely loud enough for Hinata to catch, before sliding the door closed and heading towards her own room. Turning back towards her favorite blond, Hinata quickly climbed into bed and settled down.

After trying and failing to start several times, Naruto finally managed to ask, "...What just happened?"

Smiling faintly, Hinata answered, "Nothing much," before covering her mouth in a yawn.

"I'm confused," the boy admitted.

"I know," Hinata agreed, nodding and still refusing to clarify things for him.

After only a little while—perhaps an hour, by her guess—she felt Naruto twitch slightly in her arms and the boy's breathing and heart-rate slowed in obvious signs of sleep. Smiling softly, she brushed her lips against his temple and tried to relax herself for what was sure to be a long night. Drawing up a little chakra, she activated her byakugan and let the expanded vision fill her sense of sight. Beside her, Naruto's closest ear—the boy and the room plainly visible in both chakra sight and, oddly enough, normal sight even through her closed eyes and the dark room—swiveled in her direction momentarily before the boy sighed quietly and settled back down, his subconscious calling the brief spike in chakra a false alarm when he sensed no immediate danger and no one else in the room or those nearby save for the people he expected to be there.

Seeing that the blond seemed to be fully asleep again, she turned her sight inward, focusing on the chakra flowing through her own body. As the night passed, she lay there relaxed and simply observing the flow of her own energy—something that would have been impossible for more than a few minutes at a time due to limited chakra availability. Now, she hardly even noticed the energy expenditure required to fuel her sight. The ebb and flow of soft blue light through her body lulled her mind closer towards sleep, relaxing in a way that few things are. _'It's like the sea,'_ the thought flitted across her mind. With the thought came more comparisons to water—most of which were things passed down through her clan, a few of the more common idea passed along in the ninja academy. The boy beside her shifting in his sleep drew her attention and sight towards him. If her own chakra was comparable to a river or stream, then looking into the softly glowing mass that was Naruto's was like looking out over the ocean—vast nearly beyond measure. A bit of red mixed in with all of the blue drew her attention towards the boy's midsection and the slowly churning whirlpool of blood red energy there—far more of the stuff visible than she ever recalled seeing, save for when he got angry as a child or intentionally drew on it. Studying the swirl further showed that the energy along the outer edges was slowly mixing with the blue surrounding it, leaving a darker violet chakra as the byproduct.

Her mind briefly coming closer towards waking, she realized what was happening, even as she pushed her sight deeper into the swirl of red. _'It's bleeding,'_ she surmised as the seal on the boy's stomach became visible to her eyes. Several of the lines making up the body of the seal seemed to be missing, but based on the way the chakra flowed through it for the most part, it was either ignoring the missing parts or acting as though they were still there. No, what caught her attention were the nine symbols arranged symmetrically around the boy's naval. Four of them were the same as the rest of the seal—visible as a solid chakra construct composed of equal parts red and blue, both colors visible but neither overshadowing the other. One of the nine was the same violet color as the mixed chakra at the edges where the two masses of energy met. Violet was clearly leaking from this one and into the swirling mass, but dissipated into the flood of red coming from the four other points and stopped being visible as it diluted.

Moving slowly, the girl's hand already at his waist rose higher, resting over his stomach and the seal beneath it. It felt warm to the touch—several degrees warmer than the rest of the boy's body. Channeling a bit of chakra into her index finger, she passed the digit slowly along the shape of the seal. The entire thing resisted the small intrusion of her chakra, but she was able to get a better feel of the flow than she had using her byakugan. Finding the fifth seal, the one bleeding violet chakra, she pressed her finger gently to it and firmly pushed her own chakra at it as she would for jyuuken. The point fought and the boy in her arms squirmed slightly, but she felt the flow of chakra from the point stop and Naruto settled back down immediately after. A closer look showed that the point there was still violet though it no longer leaked, held back by the brightly glowing blue of her own chakra she had jammed in like a makeshift tourniquet. Encouraged by her success, she moved on to the next one. As soon as her chakra came into contact with the red gushing from this point, she began trying to force it closed. It took time and a lot of chakra, but eventually, she gave a small sigh of triumph as the last of the points closed and the chakra flows in that area returned to something approaching normal.

Beside her, Naruto shifted again before murmuring, "Hinata-chan?"

"Shh, go back to sleep Naruto-kun," she shushed him, planting a kiss on his cheek and brushing her hand softly over the area she had just resealed. The boy apparently listened as he was back asleep within minutes. Checking over her handiwork one more time to be sure it would last through the night, Hinata slowly shifted her vision back towards her own body. At the point where her skin came into contact with his, she paused. She had missed it the first time, but now that she was more awake, she could spot the noticeable change in chakra flow. It was small, but where their bodies met, the chakra flowing through them seemed to bend towards the other's chakra. Curious, she slowed the flow of chakra in the area where her hand came into contact with his waist—back down from his stomach to where she'd had it originally. As the energy flowing through her hand retreated somewhat, the bend in the flows lessened until it coursed normally. Increasing it back to normal caused the bends to return. _'They're attracted to each other,'_ she mused. A small grin tugged as her lips as she further increased the chakra output from her hand. As the two flows came into contact through their skin, she felt a faint tingle in her hand and saw both Naruto and his chakra flinch momentarily before both settled down. The tingle in her palm increased and the grin on her lips spread and became somewhat lecherous. _'I remember this.'_ Moving slowly as to not disturb the blond, she quickly shed her shirt and the pair of boxers she had pilfered from the boy, tossing them in the general direction of one of the corners before bringing as much of her flesh flush against his own as she could. A moment later, she sighed in bliss as the tingle spread through everywhere they touched.

Thoroughly enjoying herself, Hinata again focused her attention inwards and on what she had been trying to work on before she had nearly lulled herself to sleep. Concentrating on the beating of her heart, and the movement of chakra, she willed the energy to pulse in time with her heartbeat and blood flow. Dawn was peaking over the horizon with light beginning to filter through the curtains of Naruto's room and she had long since stopped using her byakugan by the time she had made any headway, but she _had_ made progress. All through her body, the blue light of her chakra pulsed in time with her heartbeat. It wasn't even remotely close to being able to perform Tsunade's strength technique again, but it was a flying leap in the right direction. Expanding her sight one more time for a quick look over, she paused as she took in the sight of Naruto and herself. During the night, she had pulled up the boy's shirt so as to have more of that wonderful skin-to-skin contact. That wasn't the unexpected thing. No, what was unexpected was that Naruto's chakra, heartbeat, and breathing were all moving in time with her own. They weren't synchronized beat-for-beat and breath-for-breath though, rather it was beat-for-lull of the heart, inhale-for-exhale of breath, and ebb-for-flow of chakra. And where their skin came into contact, the blue glow of chakra passed freely between them to the point that she couldn't quite tell whose was whose any more. A smile drifting across her face, she released the chakra expanding her sight and let go of her hold on consciousness, hoping to get an hour or two of sleep before they had to be up.

* * *

Her ears twitching, Hinata was in an especially good mood even despite the lack of sleep as she stretched languidly and opened her eyes. Despite the lack of sleep, the felt positively energetic—as though she'd slept twelve hours as opposed to two. A quick pull at her chakra confirmed that in spite of using her byakugan and playing with chakra all night, she actually had more than was normal—or rather, more than she had recently gotten used to having—nearly a quarter-again as much. _'This must be how Naruto-kun feels all the time,'_ she mused. It felt _good_, but it also nearly hurt. If she could compare it to something, it would be to going without food for three days and then stuffing herself when presented with a feast. The sound of footsteps pausing outside their door drew the girl's attention to what had woken her up in the first place. Having some idea of just who was outside and what was to come, Hinata reached under the pillow and pulled out the trio of kunai there. The sound of the lock on the door sliding from locked to unlocked provided all the proof Hinata needed and she let the weapons fly just as the door was sliding open. The door had gotten no more than an inch open before the trio of kunai slammed into the track it ran along and jammed it shut. The door slid closed and open again, thunking against the weapons holding it in place. A frustrated growl echoed quietly from outside before Anko began yelling. "Open the door, you little bitch!"

"No," Hinata answered softly, knowing the irate special-jonin would hear her anyway.

Beside the ex-Hyuuga, Naruto stirred before jolting rudely to full-wakefulness. "Huhwhazza?" he mumbled, his brain still addled from sleep.

"Open up!"

Blinking tiredly, Naruto turned his head to regard the girl behind him. "What's she want?"

Hinata shrugged, hiding her smile as she felt the boy's entire body stiffen and his face redden as he apparently became aware of her state of undress. "She probably had some ideas about dousing us with a bucket of water or something silly like that and now she's annoyed because a girl half her age thwarted her evil plot."

The sound of metal smacking the wooden floor and water sloshing around inside a container from just outside the door met their ears. "...Did you just call me old?" Anko asked quietly, the complete lack of bluster and/or killing intent worrying the pair momentarily.

"...No?" Naruto tried, cringing at the thought of what the woman would do and Tsunade would allow, so long as it was fixable with jutsu.

"Downstairs. Five minutes," the special-jonin growled, picking up her bucket and stalking towards the stairs, the threat of violence whether they obeyed or not obvious in her tone. It seemed Hinata would be putting off telling Naruto about what she'd learned that night, at least for a few hours.

As it turned out, Anko was apparently very sensitive about her age and could carry a grudge like nobody's business. Thankfully though—or perhaps worryingly, she had the professionalism to stick to what she had originally planned for the day with only a few hints of her irritation showing through and the patience to wait until they least expected it to get back at them. After a grueling warm up that left Tenten feeling like her limbs were made of some kind of combination of jelly and lead, had left Haku unconscious for a short time and still struggling for breath, but had only seriously winded the foxy pair—to Anko's annoyance—the special-jonin called for a break. "Ok, kiddies, listen up!" she called. Seeing that she had their attention Anko pulled one of the wrapped bundles she had set aside at the start of their warm up, checked the label, and tossed the bundle towards Naruto.

Catching the package reflexively and then promptly throwing it back for fear of it exploding in his hands, he asked, "What's that?"

Tossing the package back, Anko rolled her eyes. "It isn't going to explode, idiot. Open it."

Cringing, Naruto carefully opened the brown paper-wrapped package. On catching sight of its contents, a grin spread across the boy's face. "Is this really...?"

Anko nodded. "Yeah, it is. Now put it on."

"What is it?" Haku asked curiously, finally having caught enough breath to do so.

His grin threatening to split his face in half, Naruto held up a matching jacket and set of pants—both fluorescent orange. _"Orange,"_ the boy practically drooled.

Sighing, Tenten palmed her face. "I should have known," she mumbled.

Sending Anko a curious look, Hinata asked, "Didn't we all agree that excessive orange was bad for your health?"

Beside her, Naruto sent Hinata a shocked and betrayed look while Anko simply smirked. "We did, but this isn't everyday wear. Today, you _brats_ get to play hide and seek."

_'She still isn't over the age comment,'_ Hinata mused. "So there are more of those?" she asked, pointing between the set Naruto was holding and the bags on the ground.

Anko nodded. "Yup. But for now, you're going to be taking turns. The rules are simple. The one in orange hides while everyone else is 'it' and tries to find whichever one of you is hiding."

Glancing between the orange jumpsuit and the special-jonin questioningly, Tenten asked, "Isn't that a little too easy? I mean, no offense Naruto, but with blond hair and full-body orange, you used to stand out like a sore thumb." Beside her, Haku kept quiet, having some idea just what they may be in for.

"That was the point," both Naruto and Anko deadpanned. Anko continued, "But if you think Naruto has an unfair advantage, we can try different colors."

Looking somewhat insulted, Tenten made to open her mouth only to be cut off by Hinata. "I'm doing this without my byakugan?"

"It doesn't really matter, but yes, no byakugan." Seeing Tenten's questioning look, Anko simply grinned. Seeing that Naruto had already changed out of his old clothes and slipped into the new ones—which already had a clean hole in the rear for his tail, meaning she'd probably been by Dane's to pick it up—Anko gestured for the others to turn around. "No cheating," the jonin warned before turning to Naruto and giving him the signal to leave. Turning back towards the trio of ninja, Anko's eyes narrowed as she spotted one of Hinata's ears tilted back in the direction Naruto had gone. A moment later, she placed her hands atop the new ears and cut off the girl's better hearing, leaving her with only the normal set of ears to hear clearly from. After a full minute, she released Hinata and stepped in front of the trio before shouting, "You have ten minutes starting now! Make it back here without getting spotted before then and you win!" Turning her attention to the girls and Haku in front of her, she added, "Well, what are you waiting for?"

Glancing between each other, the trio turned around and dashed off in the direction they had heard Naruto go. The trio automatically fanned out, putting a good thirty feet between each other so as to cover as much area as possible while they searched. Rushing past the few other groups of clones—mostly of Naruto and Hinata, though there were at least three sets of Tsunade, Shizune, and Anko—the group leaped over the stream splitting the middle of the property and into the field between the stream and the eastern tree line. Halfway into the field, Hinata paused before making a hard left and heading mostly parallel to the stream for the southern boundary of the property. "What are you doing?" Tenten called, quickly coming back into formation along with Haku.

"He's this way!" Hinata answered back, a small grin tugging at her lips at the excitement of the chase.

"Are you sure?" asked Haku, getting a nod in answer.

"How? You ignore Anko and use your byakugan?" Tenten asked, knowing that no Hyuuga would have a problem covering the majority of the property in their field of vision.

"Nope," Hinata shook her head. "I don't know how, I just know."

Several yards into the woods Naruto stood in the top of a pine tree, most of his body hidden behind the trunk while he peeked around the side and eyed the field. Spotting Hinata's sudden course correction, he hummed in thought. "That's right where I turned," he murmured. Shrugging, he put it down to Hinata's time on Team 8 and having picked up a few things from being on a tracking team. Turning away from the field, he hopped to the next one down, roughly following the tree line westward. After a minute of this, he jinked hard left, dropping to the ground and running nearly a hundred yards before altering course and doubling back from his original path, now heading east and still parallel to the tree line. Pausing at the foot of a tree, he stopped and watched the area of the woods where he had entered. Sure enough, the trio of ninja ran into the woods and Hinata ran straight up the tree he had been spying on them from, followed closely by Haku and Tenten. Pausing on the limb he had been standing on, she turned her head in the direction he had originally run. Taking that moment to move, Naruto quickly scaled the tree he was hiding behind to the nearest branch to the ground. Once there, he again slid around the tree far enough to get a look at the group. Taking a step down the branch towards the next tree, Hinata paused. Swiveling her head from the path she had intended to take, she focused on a point deeper into the woods and further east of their position, barely missing seeing Naruto's blond hair as he pulled his head back.

Pausing from where she had been about to follow Hinata, Tenten shot the girl a questioning look. A moment later, she signed, 'hear something?'

Shaking her head, Hinata signed back, 'not sure. Think he doubled back.'

'Split up?' Haku suggested after catching their attention.

Nodding, Hinata pointed to Tenten and gestured towards the path she had been about to follow, signing, 'Down to five minutes. Come back after one if you don't see him. Circle back through the field.' Turning to Haku, she gestured further eastward, suggesting Haku head east before circling back towards her, while Hinata herself would stay where she was.

Naruto's ears twitched as two sets of footfalls departed, one the direction he had gone, the other in the direction he had intended to go. A quick check showed Tenten and Haku's retreating backs and a glance at his watch gave him an estimate of how much time he had left. Springing off the tree he was on, he jumped to the one directly ahead of him, still out of Hinata's normal line of sight. Scaling the tree, he stopped near the top and quickly circled to the other side before running down a limb and repeating the process, moving further south. Hearing Haku approaching from his left, the boy turned right, sprinting through the treetops in the direction Tenten had gone.

At the end of their allotted ten minutes, the trio of ninja found their way back to Anko and, to no one but Tenten's surprise, Naruto standing there grinning like an idiot. "Ok, how'd you do it?" the bun-haired kunoichi asked, rolling her eyes in defeat.

Naruto shrugged while Anko shook her head. "Did you forget that this brat used to prank the village on a daily basis? And out of all those times, he only actually got caught a couple of times a week in the beginning. By the time your genin exam rolled around, Naruto hadn't gotten caught in nearly a year. I'd know, because I went on my fair share of gaki-hunts after this shithead painted the monument the first time and I only ever caught him a handful of times." Glancing over to the beaming blond at her side, Anko rolled her eyes before swatting the back of his head. "Don't let it go to your head, kid. If I'd been serious, I'd have just killed you in your sleep." Grabbing the packages, she looked out to the other ninja. "So, who's next?"

Off to the side, a pair of Naruto and Hinata watched the original pair and the others playing hide and seek. Well, that is, Naruto watched while Hinata split her attention between watching them with her byakugan and trying to recreate the oddity of the previous night. Sighing, she opened her eyes. "Naruto-kun," she said softly, getting the boy's attention along with a sheepish look.

"Ah, sorry Hinata-chan. I got kind of distracted," he murmured, moving to rub the back of his head only for the girl to tighten her fingers locked with his and refuse to let him move the hand away from her own.

Hinata shook her head. "It's ok. I was watching them too," she admitted. After a moment of thought, she added, "We should do this inside from now on." The thought that it would be best if they had complete bare skin-to-skin contact and exactly what that would require passed through her mind and drew a small grin across her lips before she put the thought aside for later. There would be plenty of time for play at night. Forcing herself to relax, she focused on the point where their hands joined and tried again to synchronize their chakra flows. With her eyes closed and her concentration focused entirely inward, Hinata had no idea just how much time passed with no real success before they were interrupted by the sound of Naruto's stomach. Sighing, Hinata let go of the hold on her chakra and let her vision return to normal. Opening her eyes, she glanced up at Naruto to see him focused on something across the field. Turning her head, she spotted the original two of them running—Naruto chasing and quickly gaining on Hinata. A moment later, the blond tackled the girl and they rolled around on the ground before squeals of laughter began to echo across the area.

"That looks like fun," the Naruto across from her grinned, turning his attention back to her.

Shaking her head at the look on his face, the girl stood and held out her hands to help him up. "Come on, let's go get those two some lunch." As much as she would like to play too, she also knew that the entire point of them making clones was so that they could get more things done in a day than they normally could. At the moment, in addition to themselves there was a set of them working with Tsunade and Isaribi reviewing medical knowledge while Shizune caught Temari up off to the side, another set working with another pair of Shizune and Tsunade on pretty much whatever they came up with the night before, another pair of themselves working with Anko on basic jutsu that didn't require too much chakra control, a final pair were sitting with Yuugao discussing something Hinata couldn't make out from this distance, and Naruto had at least three clones down in the stream doing something that seemed to involve a _lot_ of chakra. Giving up on continuing the exercise later in the day, Hinata contented herself with the thought that she would get to do it later that night. Besides, it was more fun that way anyway. Maybe she could persuade Naruto to go into town with her and go see a movie or something instead. Maybe if he got some of the boredom out of his system he would be more open to it tomorrow.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Updates have officially gone from sporadic to few-and-far-between. Despite this chapter being pretty necessary to build on things later, even _I_ feel like it's pretty much filler. I won't give you excuses like writers block or that I've been busy because honestly, I either did/was or didn't/wasn't. For the most part, when I did have free time, I simply wasn't in the mood to write. When I was, looking at what I originally had of this chapter bogged me down and I gave up on it for a while. Instead, I've been working on a Naruto-meets-Life on Mars story. Didn't get very far. Also started a Harry Potter (yeah, I've been reading a lot of it lately) take on Chunin Exam Day (time loop during the Triwizard tournament). Didn't get far on that either, but the ideas for both were and still are entertaining and I'd like to either write it myself or offer it up as a challenge. And to give you a glimpse of things that you missed out on because I didn't want to needlessly bore anyone with 'training' chapters or other crap (if you're asking yourself, "isn't this one?," the answer is "no, it could be worse."), here's a bit of something I decided to cut out. You CAN consider it canon, but it isn't necessary to move the plot along.

* * *

The sounds of flesh smacking flesh echoed across the back yard of Team Hokage's residence, causing Naruto to wince. "That sounded painful," the boy mused, shooting a glance towards where himself and Hinata were attempting to spar with Anko—though it would probably be more accurate to say they were attempting to _survive_ sparring with Anko. After a vigorous warm up, the group had split off into several sub-groups—each with their own clones of both Naruto and Hinata—to work on various things. Unfortunately, Anko had snagged both the original copies of the foxy teens and mentioned something about taijutsu training before dragging them to an isolated corner or the yard to begin her instruction.

"Pay attention," a voice chastised, pulling the boy's eyes away from his creator getting slammed face-first into a tree by the overly-enthusiastic kunoichi and back to the newest member of their group. "Thank you," Yuugao smiled, leaning back against one of the many shade trees in the yard and crossing her arms over her chest. _'This sounded a lot easier last night,'_ the woman mused, wondering just where she should begin. _'I've never actually been assigned to teach anyone before.'_

After the kunoichi had gathered in the bath last night, Tsunade had outlined her plans for what sorts of material she wanted to cover in the coming weeks. Some things—namely things of the highest priority, such as helping the changed pair to regain their lost chakra control and coordination—were set in stone and would be fairly straightforward. Running the original two teens ragged with some of the more advanced physical training regimines would eventually straighten out the problem with coordination, and that task had been delegated mostly to Anko. And while she knew Anko could get a little... out of hand occasionally, the woman had at one time been an apprentice to a Sannin. What Naruto—or the clone with Yuugao, at any rate—had witnessed was Anko having a little too much fun with her new punching bags while still doing what she'd set out to accomplish. For this first week, she would be looking for anything and everything out of the ordinary so it could eventually be addressed and resolved. Further away from Yuugao than Anko and the original teens, Tsunade herself was working on getting the pair's chakra control back up to what it had been before, though at the moment she—like Anko—was trying to assess just how bad the damage was so she would have some idea of where to start. And near those three, Shizune had taken a pair of clones, Isaribi, Haku, and Tenten and was currently reviewing things that could be done without chakra.

The sound of a clone forming drew Yuugao's eyes momentarily back to the sparring match nearby. A pair of Anko closed the distance between themselves and the two chuunin. As they neared, a brief surge of killing intent radiated off one of the two Anko, drawing both chuunin's attention to where she had brought her hands together into what looked like the beginning seals for one of her preferred techniques. Their attention momentarily diverted to that Anko, both teens lost focus on the other kunoichi long enough for her to disappear in a normal shunshin, reappearing mid-kick and sending Naruto reeling back. Her attention pulled away from her own Anko to Naruto for a moment, Hinata found her feet swept out from under her and had met a similar fate as that of the blond fighting with her.

"Ok, what just happened," the Naruto sitting in front of her asked, his attention again on the fight.

Beside the boy, Hinata bit her lip for a moment before answering. "She created a distraction."


	24. Looking Out Over a Sea of Trash

**The Missing Hokage**

**24: Looking Out Over a Sea of Trash**

* * *

_'A few more months.'_ Jiraiya snorted, re-reading the coded missive he'd received from Tsunade by summon—lizard, this time. Once he got over the distraction of realizing that Tsunade's little group had access to at least four unique summoning contracts that he knew of (Tsunade's slugs, Naruto's toads, Anko's snakes, and now _someone's_ lizards—though he didn't know the specifics of that contract, it was a safe guess that there were at least a few subspecies represented on that contract as there were most of the others, with the slug contract being the possible exception, but that was getting off-track), Jiraiya had decoded Tsunade's letter and had sat for the last half hour alternately re-reading it to make sure he had decoded it correctly (he had) and glaring at the thing as though that alone would set it aflame (it hadn't, yet, though not for lack of trying).

Tsunade wanted him to wait, to put off their little exodus from what was quickly becoming enemy territory for an indeterminate amount of time. "'A few more months' my ass," the Sannin finally growled, and then carried through with his desire to burn the message, dropping the flaming paper into his garbage can. In his opinion, they had already put this off far too long—it had already been over two months since Tsunade's group had recovered Naruto from Akatsuki and Yuugao had joined up with them. Of course, Tsunade had good reasons for making her request—she wouldn't have made it if she hadn't, after all. And when he really thought about it, Jiraiya could agree with her, for the most part. A second Hokage deserting the post within such a short time period would throw the village into chaos, at least temporarily—hell, that was the entire point! No, the problem lie in the very real possibility that someone would—rightly, for a change—single out Naruto as the cause of both desertions and decide to take action against the boy. And even with the threat of two of the Sannin and the possibility that the Kyuubi could be loosed on any attacking forces, that wouldn't stop either another attempt to send in a solitary assassin like Anko or a massed attack of like-minded individuals willing to face potential punishment for their actions and the very real possibility of certain death for several of their numbers so long as they felt it would serve the village. Konoha was in the top three of the five major ninja villages, as far as population of skilled ninja. Even not counting the major clans, there were several _thousand_ trained ninja of questionable loyalty—those whose highest loyalty lie with the village as a whole, those whose loyalties lie with the position of Hokage and not the person, those loyal to himself, Tsunade, or Sarutobi, those loyal to their own clans, a (hopefully dwindling) holdout loyal to the council and Danzou, and those willing to straddle the fence for the time being—within the village. And at the moment, Naruto was particularly vulnerable to enemy attack. From what little Tsunade had been willing to relay, Naruto's chakra control was, in a word, fucked. While the boy wasn't defenceless by far, it was too close at the moment for either Jiraiya or Tsunade to accept. They simply saw different ways of dealing with it.

Sighing, Jiraiya resisted the urge to plant his head on the desk and give in to the temptation to just slip into unconsciousness and forget the world for a few hours. Now he knew why he'd constantly caught Tsunade—and Minato well before her—napping in the office, at least. Looking at it practically, Jiraiya knew Tsunade was doing everything in her power to get the boy back up to speed and that she was correct that it would take time, but that knowledge did nothing to assuage his feeling of uselessness in this particular situation being as cut off from them as he was. And really, even if he were there with them, there wasn't much he could do to help that Tsunade wasn't already doing. Still, he felt that if he could look at the problem first-hand, he could probably come up with something—and if not, then at least he could begin teaching the boy skills that didn't really require much chakra control beyond awareness of the energy and the ability to channel it—specifically, sealing and taijutsu. Though maybe... no, it was still a little too soon to pass on _that_, even if it was something the boy could probably learn at the moment without needing refined chakra control. It was just too risky to have Naruto try to learn the technique at the moment—should he fail, the consequences... Jiraiya shuddered at the thought. Even his own successful semi-mastery of the technique left its marks on him while it was in use. Although, knowing Naruto's penchant for mastering nearly any technique put in front of him with proper motivation and for generating miracles seemingly at will, it may be worth the risk...

Reaching out to pick up a cup of long-since cold tea, the Sannin's hand brushed against one of the many mission scrolls arranged on the desk, bringing to mind just why he was so anxious to leave and thankfully driving thoughts of trying to teach Naruto nearly-suicidal techniques from his mind for the moment. Danzou had managed to convince the council to start bringing older ninja within a certain age range out of retirement, raise the retirement age, lower the minimum recruitment and graduation ages and standards of the academy, and do away with the usual 'real genin exam' given by jonin sensei to make sure their teams were _really_ ready for missions. Now, it would fall to jonin-sensei to _make_ all of their genin ready. In addition, they had pretty much instated a minor draft from the civilian population by requiring every second-born child to at least attend the academy, even if they did not go on to become active-duty shinobi. Danzou and his ilk hadn't been able to force through a proposition that would have forced all of those potential ninja into service, but they would be available should they be needed and with the lower standards for graduation, more of them would likely be making it onto genin teams. Combined with the startlingly successful results of his own act making all of the public baths and restroom facilities unisex, put into place with forged signatures and made in an attempt to shame the council and gain more 'research material' for himself, it would guarantee a large ninja population boom in the next ten or so years—pregnancies among both the kunoichi and civilian populations had skyrocketed and the medics and doctors seemed to think this would be an ongoing thing for the next year or more, at the least.

When Jiraiya had asked where the funding for all of the training, supplies, and everything else required to expand one's army would come from, the civilian sector of the council under Danzou's thumb had proposed several tax hikes—both on domestic sales and especially on imports—that had all been pushed through and the office of Hokage had nearly no direct legal control over—with the exception of the taxes on foreign trade—as they were predominantly a civilian matter. This was exactly the kind of back-room political maneuvering that Jiraiya hated and had never really been all that good at. Sarutobi and Orochimaru were the political masterminds, not him. His real area of expertise lie in information trade—managing one of the largest spy networks across the greater elemental nations, mostly, and knowing who to turn to when his own spies couldn't tell him anything useful. That's not to say he was incompetent—far from it, in fact. He hated to admit it, but the truth was that Danzou was just better. If the man weren't a complete hard-ass, warmonger, and Jiraiya suspected somewhat mentally unstable, he might even make a tolerable Kage. Danzou had nearly all of the qualities required to lead a ninja village—the only thing really holding him back was Konoha's aversion towards war since the end of the last one and his disability, which in the minds of many would scream 'weakness' and putting the Hokage's hat atop a cripple—even as decorated a war veteran as Danzou—would be just asking for trouble. It was political suicide at the moment, possibly worse with Konoha still recovering from the Suna/Oto invasion. Still, all of his qualifications didn't make him the right man for the job. Jiraiya just didn't feel that Danzou had what it would take to lead the village to prosperity and, most of all, _peace_. After all, Orochimaru had been Sarutobi's second choice for his successor as Hokage, behind Minato, and currently lead his own ninja village. Jiraiya could grudgingly admit that the rogue Sannin was, admittedly, a genius and would have made a great leader—terrible in his ruthlessness and willingness to sacrifice everything to see his goals through, but great nonetheless.

As the thought of his brightest—and only—student again crossed his mind, Jiraiya absently brushed his hand over the bulge of a small scroll sitting in his pocket. This scroll contained everything of value that Minato had left behind that wasn't nailed down. All of his money—which wasn't much, at least compared to the Sarutobi fortune and Jiraiya's own income from his wildly successful book series—his books and scrolls and most importantly, his jutsu. Jiraiya had left a seal of his own behind in Minato's former home. When he activated it, the seal would ignite the home and shortly thereafter, set off a cascade collapse of the seals hiding it and doing who knows what else Minato dreamed up when he was bored and had enough time to add them. When not spending time with Kushina, his team, his sensei, or making a new jutsu, Minato had _always_ been bored. The resulting explosion would likely wipe out the entire property of the Namikaze residence (and probably a bit more), taking with it all evidence of the seals in use in and around the building and property. Considering that Jiraiya hadn't stepped up and taken responsibility for Naruto as a child, as he _knew_ Minato would have wanted, the least he could do to make amends would be to deliver the scroll and try to make up for opportunities lost. And that made up his mind for him.

_'Fuck it,'_ the Sannin thought, and taking out pen and paper he started penning his final orders to the village. The first order of business? Making sure there was absolutely no chance in hell Danzou would ever be Hokage.

_I, Jiraiya of the Sannin_... "Blah, blah, blah," he murmured in annoyance, though he kept true to the format Tsunade had used before him, and Sandaime and the other Hokages before him—Minato had left no such final orders. Perhaps, if he had, things would have been different... _do hereby nominate Hatake Kakashi as my successor to the position of Hokage._ Here, Jiraiya smirked. He knew the council—the majority of them, save for those loyal to himself or who just didn't like the idea of Danzou in power, would try their damndest to make sure Kakashi never took office (short of killing him, probably). They would try to set up legal hoops for Kakashi to jump through if he wanted the position, which Danzou would have either conveniently completed or would be somehow exempt from. All in all, they would make it entirely too much of an effort for Kakashi to accept the position unless the jonin suddenly had an attack of conscience and sense of duty and felt compelled to do so—which was about as likely as Jiraiya suddenly giving up writing his Icha Icha series and ogling girls and instead turning to drawing lustful images of naked men making passionate love to each other, or worse, becoming celibate. So, Jiraiya simply went around all of that. _Any tardiness on Kakashi's part to any gathering arranged regarding his acceptance of the office of Hokage is to be taken as his acceptance of the position._

Forcing Kakashi into the position of Hokage once he was out of office was only the first stage of Jiraiya's—admittedly hastily thought out—plan. Honestly, he had been focused mostly on doing as much damage as he could while in office and that would be noticed when he left and hadn't been focused too much on what to do the day of departure. In the time that he had been Hokage, Jiraiya had managed to cut a large chunk of the red tape and paperwork that had plagued the former Hokages out of the job by reassigning it to other departments—in truth, the places such paperwork should have been going in the first place. The reason Sandaime had burned out on the job so fast—despite actually lasting the longest in the position, the old man had been bone-weary of it by his tenth year of his _first_ term, not to mention suddenly having the job thrust back on his shoulders—was simply because he had been overtaxed, overextended. All of the day-to-day minutiae of running a full-scale ninja village—and not just any ninja village, but arguably the largest and most prosperous—had first been run through the office of the Hokage and each and every one of them bore the Hokage's stamp and signature. All of the paperwork—all of the meaningless forms, daily status updates on unimportant matters, inventory reports, financial reports, requests for funds, requests for resources, etcetera, etcetera, ad infinitum—has to be approved or disapproved by someone. And trying to spread the work across clones would only help for a few hours before dispersing and leaving their maker ready to pass out and with one massive headache. Really, he doubted even Naruto—who could throw the technique around like it cost him nothing—could handle it. Somehow, sometime between Konoha's founding and Sandaime being instated as Hokage, all of the positions and offices that would ordinarily sign off on that kind of thing and accumulate quarterly (or however often) reports to be reviewed at a later date had ceased functioning, had been cut out of the budget, or the responsibility 'elevated.' Jiraiya imagined that, sometime during the end of Shodai's reign and the beginning of Nidaime's term in office, the paperwork had slowly begun accumulating, rerouted from its regular channels straight to the Hokage's office. And he now knew, from experience, that _it did not need to be that way_.

There was no rhyme or reason for it, it simply _was_. The village had carried on well—better than he had meant for it to, actually, considering he was actually supposed to be actively sabotaging things—when he had begun reassigning the lesser things to people or departments he felt either could handle it or should have been doing so all along. With only the things that actually demanded immediate attention in front of him—analysis of intelligence reports from that particular department instead of the raw data half the time, high-profile mission reports (nothing below B-rank, those had all been assigned to chuunin, who would pass on weekly reports of C-ranked missions and simply file the D-rank results), the occasional casualty report (mostly from ROOT lately, though he'd had to cut back on those since Danzou had begun sniffing around), weekly financial reports from the treasury (they were slowly regaining what Tsunade had made off with, but it would be _years_ before Konoha could recoup those losses), and everything of importance on their interaction with foreign countries and villages—he had time to spare (which really translated into time to stare into Sandaime's crystal ball and ogle pretty naked girls in the baths for writing inspiration, along with the frequent quickie or something more amusing since the passing of that particular law to remove the divisions between sexes in the baths).

The second stage of Jiraiya's plan was simple, but would hopefully cripple Konoha from the top down the moment he stepped out of office. In writing, Jiraiya rescinded all of the assignments he had made redirecting the paper trail. The moment this went into effect, everything would go back to the way it had been—worse, actually, because he now had a grasp of how the system operated and could redirect _everything_ up to the Hokage's office, and because he was putting _Kakashi_ in charge of it all nothing would _ever_ get done. Well, that was the plan, at any rate. Plans, he knew, had a habit of falling apart rather quickly when actually put into action. What looked good on paper rarely ever (that is, almost never) worked out on the battlefield. This, he assumed, would be no different. Still, it wouldn't hurt anything for him to try. And slipping the paperwork to do it in ahead of everything else he would be putting through at the last minute, separated by several stacks of the mundane stuff and dated to look as though it had simply gotten lost in the shuffle and was just now coming up (which happened all the time), would pretty much guarantee it wouldn't be noticed soon—especially if he made up some excuse about it being better for village security. Though, now that he thought about it, he realized that was probably the reason for at least a few of the paper trail redirections in the first place, way back when, when the village was still young. With Uchiha Madara leaving the village and things uncertain, Shodai had probably wanted to tighten his hold over things as much as he could without appearing to be attempting to turn Konoha into a dictatorship, so as to not spook off the big clans.

Aside from making Kakashi's life a living hell if he ever set foot in the office, Jiraiya drew up a multitude of small and not-so-small changes to implement that would all hopefully go unnoticed in the short term but would cause hell for Konoha. For example, he rescinded the payroll taxes on active-duty shinobi, exempted active-duty shinobi from having to pay taxes on or actually pay for anything in the village that could be even loosely defined as 'ninja supplies' (which was pretty much anything a ninja could point to and give a somewhat-valid reason for as to why he or she may need it, regardless of whether it was for a mission or not) and instead bill it directly to the treasury, increased the minimum paid maternity leave for pregnant kunoichi to two years after birth by giving the excuse that it would give the new mothers more time to recover and regain whatever loss of skill there may or may not have been (and there were soon to be _many_ new mothers in Konoha), gave the retired and off active-duty shinobi a hefty pay-grade increase, increased mission payouts for active-duty shinobi based on mission rank, and that was just the tip of the iceberg—all of it coming out of Konoha's nearly-overtaxed treasury, which he planned to loot on the way out. Hopefully, it would sink Konoha so far beneath a sea of red ink that it would either drown or its citizens would take the first available opportunity to flee. And all of the paperwork found itself randomly dated between the day before and as far back as the previous month and would be filed in the proper place, with all the proper signatures that night as soon as the staff cleared out.

Grinning to himself, Jiraiya motioned for the only ANBU in the room—Tenzo—to move closer. Turning to regard the masked ninja, Jiraiya said, "I need to know who I can trust in this village and who I can't. I'm leaving that up to you."

Glancing down at some of the visible paperwork on the desk, Tenzo nodded. "I understand, Hokage-sama."

"Good, get going then," Jiraiya waved the ninja off. As Tenzo reached the window, Jiraiya held up a hand, causing him to pause. "Oh, and see about getting some kind of village meeting together tonight, in the square." Seeing Tenzo nod, Jiraiya dismissed him and turned back to his desk. Reaching into his coat, he pulled out a rough draft manuscript copy of his newest Icha Icha book and placed it beside a stack of clean paper. Concentrating on the technique he had in mind, the Sannin formed the seals for a jutsu that would copy the ink from one stack to the other. Part-way into the manuscript, he found the place he was looking for and paused in copying the documents. With a few thoughts, he altered one of the paragraphs from the original and then set about copying the rest and correcting things that would conflict with his new edit. Once finished, he opened the top drawer of the desk and placed the manuscript inside. Anyone looking would hopefully only assume he had been working on something new and had simply forgotten his copy in his haste to leave. Kakashi, however... if he ever did come into the office, was almost guaranteed to find the manuscript—which would be far too tempting for the perverse jonin to pass up. And as Kakashi was one of the very few people who knew that his stories were actually based on real people and events—the others who knew could be counted on one hand, two of whom were dead and the other two not likely to give the information to Konoha—he would be one of the few to realize that the edited bit was a message directed specifically at himself. Standing, Jiraiya began sealing before slapping the palm of his right hand on the floor. A small explosion of smoke and chakra later, a pair of toads stood before him—one small and one standing about a foot tall and wearing a pair of goggles and a jacket. Pointing off towards the west, he told them to start running and that they would know when to stop. The larger of the two toads was well known for being one of the fastest among those on the contract, given his size. It would go unnoticed until it was far, far too late to do anything about and he would be well outside of Konoha before anyone thought to question it. He then created a clone to finish up with the paperwork and took off out the window, intending to grab some lunch at Ichiraku's and meet with Kurenai as they had been doing every few days lately. Even with all of their prep-time, they still had a lot of things to do before they could leave.

* * *

"What are you doing?"

The voice nearly caused his hand to slip, which would have been bad since it would have ruined the seals he was currently carving onto the bottom of a pried-up floorboard. "Nothing," the blond answered quickly, flipping the board over and replacing it with a swat of his palm before regarding the girl who had interrupted. "What is it?"

Tenten shook her head. "You're a terrible liar," she pointed out, but decided not to pursue her line of questioning about exactly why Naruto had been putting seals on the floorboards and what exactly they were supposed to do. "Sensei sent me to get you. She says if you aren't packed and downstairs in the next five minutes, we've leaving without you." Here, Tenten checked her watch. "That was about four minutes ago."

Naruto blinked before bolting from the floor, fingers already in motion as a pair of clones popped into existence in the room. "Sure took your time getting up here!" he accused, dashing downstairs as one of the clones quickly gathered his already-packed belongings and sealed them into a scroll, before rushing down to join his creator. The final clone shot a suspicious look at Tenten as she left the room with a rather large grin on her face, before plopping down and resuming Naruto's earlier spot on the floor and prying up the floorboard the original blond had been working on. Showing off a targeted summoning seal to the group wouldn't be a surprise if someone already knew what it was, after all. _'I'll have to come up with a better name for it,' _Naruto thought, carefully going over the already completed seals to make sure everything was correct. After all, it wasn't so much a seal to summon something as a target for something to be summoned to. This would also be a test run of using a fluidless seal. Typically, ink or blood was used to create semi-permanent seals, as it was a faster and easier medium to draw with, but he already knew that seals could be carved into solid objects—stone for instance—and still activate with no fluid as a drawing medium. Which, to his mind, meant that seals could be written as _any_ deviation from the norm in a semi-uniform substance. Paths carved into stone, metals of different types inlaid into another surface, and in this case, carvings in his bedroom floorboards. If this test worked, Naruto could start scribing seals wherever the group went, that way, they could always come back without having to waste days or weeks on travel time—especially on boats. Also, it meant that if they needed it, they would have an out if they ever needed to get away from a battle. Of course, this meant he or a clone would have to go back to anywhere they had already been before and make a target seal if he didn't want the others to have to waste time trekking around with him just to make new seals. And, of course, this meant he would also be making a trip back up to Snow—The Land of Spring, now—some time soon. _'It'd be nice to see Yukie again,'_ mused the blond, before turning back to the task at hand.

And downstairs, Naruto rushed up to a copy of himself before handing the other blond a scroll and _poof!_ing out of existence. "Tell me again why we're going all the way to Water Country for some old guy," Naruto whined, though inside he was excited. After all, the boy loved to travel. And it would also mean possibly being able to pick up a new technique or two where they were going.

Tsunade sighed, shooting a look of exasperation at Hinata as though to ask, _'Still think it's worth it, coming all the way here when he does things like this?'_ The girl in question sent the elder kunoichi a mischievous grin before attaching herself to Naruto's side. Tsunade supposed that was answer enough. "Because I've been putting it off for a while and he got fed up with it. And since I don't have the excuse of my Hokage duties to fall back on now, he's being annoyingly insistent. That, and I owe him a favor or two." _'More like a dozen,'_ corrected the Sannin in-mind.

"What kind of favor, Tsunade-sensei?" Tenten asked. She didn't usually use the '-shishou' suffix, as that seemed to be reserved for Shizune, Hinata, and Naruto (though he never used it, apparently to spite her) as they were her apprentices and Tenten and the others studying under her were just students. In the time since first joining up with Team Hokage, the bun-haired girl had come a long way towards getting over her idol-worship of the Sannin. She still respected Tsunade, of course, but she had had her nose rubbed in the fact that the woman was just another human—with all of the flaws and faults and strengths that went with it—far too many times to be star-struck any more. The truth of the matter was that Tsunade had been a coward running from her own problems and trying to drown them in alcohol and gambling debt, and dragging Shizune—loyal as she was, she refused to leave the Sannin's side—down with her. The Slug Sannin still had problems, and still liked her alcohol and throwing away money, but at least now she seemed to be taking those last two in moderation and looked to have steeled her resolve and was slowly dealing with the first.

_'The 'I saved your ass and now it's mine' kind of debt,'_ the Sannin almost blurted. That answer simply wouldn't do, though, so she answered instead, "The annoying kind." Though, to be fair, the old man had never actually called her on her debt until just before Jiraiya and Naruto had found her and Naruto subsequently dragged her kicking and screaming out of her funk. On the other side of things, if he wanted to, he could call in the very literal interpretation of Tsunade's understanding of her debt and she would be honor-bound to follow through—not that something like honor had ever really kept her from or forced her to do anything.

"Everyone packed and ready to go?" Shizune asked, having already gone over her own and Tsunade's gear—after all, if she or Hinata didn't check up on her, Tsunade was likely to forget things. Underwear, for instance, had been forgotten on more than one occasion. There were affirmatives from the majority of the group, Temari just finishing rifling through her own bag to make sure everything she felt she'd need was in place before sealing it into a scroll and pocketing the scroll.

Holding out her free hand to the blond at her side, Hinata waved it at the boy in a 'gimme' motion. Naruto rolled his eyes. "I can pack my own gear," he whined, but handed the ex-Hyuuga the scroll with his gear all the same.

"Of course, Naruto-kun," Hinata nodded indulgently, but still created a clone of herself and handed it the scroll. Unsealing the boy's travel bag, Hinata's clone dug through it for a few moments before pronouncing it satisfactory, putting everything back in its proper place, and then resealing the scroll. "We still need to run by Dane's and pick up the altered stuff," the girl reminded the Sannin.

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "That slacker hasn't finished yet?"

Naruto shook his head. "He made me get him some fresh material a couple of days after we brought the old stuff in, then closed the store."

Yuugao, who had been watching the exchange, glanced between the two blonds. "Material?" Beside her, Temari looked equally confused.

Before Naruto could answer, Anko popped up at his elbow opposite from Hinata and slapped a hand over his mouth, before sending a leer Yuugao's direction. "Nothing special." Her steel grip on his jaw convinced Naruto to keep his mouth shut, for the moment. He supposed Anko must want to surprise Yuugao with it, for whatever reason, as Naruto and Hinata had been without the chameleon material since getting back into town and the others who had sets of the stuff never wore or practiced with theirs, that he was aware of. He didn't blame them though, it was all heavy-duty winter stuff and while it got cold this time of year, this being Fire Country it wasn't _that_ cold.

Rolling her eyes at the childish display, Tsunade asked the boy, "How much material?"

Naruto pondered on it for a moment before shrugging, as Anko still had his mouth covered. He had learned the hard way not to do something childish to make her let go, either. The first and last time he had licked her palm, the woman had pointed out that she could have been handling poisons, snakes, or for all he knew she could have been fondling herself. Making an annoyed noise, the blond glared up at the older kunoichi for a moment before she finally released him—though that had more to do with the threat of a jyuuken strike to her wrist from Hinata than the boy's glare. "A good bit," Naruto finally answered. "Probably enough to make a couple of sets for each of us."

"_All_ of us, Naruto-kun?" Shizune questioned.

The blond boy nodded again. "Yeah, said he might as well make the rest while we had some down time."

"Let's get going then. We've got a lot of ground to cover and if we're not there by the end of the week the old fart's going to be pissy." Tsunade sighed, starting out off the property and into Otafuku Gai.

They met Isaribi at Dane's shop, the fish-girl opening the door for them and quickly locking it behind them once they were inside. "You're running behind, aren't you?" the girl questioned.

"We wouldn't be if someone hadn't overslept," Temari quipped, shooting a look in Naruto's direction. After a moment, she added, "Which is odd, because I'm pretty sure Hinata came downstairs and grabbed a plate for him..."

Naruto shrugged the girl's suspicions off—they didn't need to know that he and Hinata both had been up well before dawn, entertaining Naruto's spur-of-the-moment idea for a reverse summoning seal. That, and the boy had quickly found out the easiest way to convince Hinata to do pretty much anything he asked (aside from outright asking, as that just wasn't nearly as fun as the alternative) was bribery—namely, lazing in bed snuggling with the girl for an hour or so before they actually got up and having a clone come back with a breakfast of cinnamon rolls that Hinata wouldn't have to get out of bed for. Not that Naruto would ever complain—he liked the snuggling part just as much as she did, once he had gotten the idea that she allowed and actually encouraged him to touch her through his thick skull. "It's nice to wake up late, sometimes," he countered, completely ignoring the last part of the Suna kunoichi's comment in favor of asking, "So's he in the back?"

Isaribi nodded, though it was unnecessary when the retired ninja in question opened the door to the back room carrying a bundle of scrolls stacked atop two bundles wrapped in brown paper. Setting the stack down on top of his counter top, he passed the two paper-wrapped bundles to the foxy pair and waved them towards the changing rooms across the store. "Go try those on so I can make any last-minute adjustments before you guys head out."

Grabbing Naruto's hand, Hinata dragged him towards one of the changing rooms. The others blinked as the ex-Hyuuga dragged him inside and shut the door, the sound of a deadbolt slamming home echoing through the store ominously. A lecherous grin spreading across her face, Anko glanced around before innocently asking, "So, any bets when she's finally going to get tired of waiting and just take advantage of him?"

"Isn't she now?" Shizune asked, gaze still locked on the changing room.

Anko snorted. "No, I'm pretty sure we'd _know_ if those two were going at it right now." After a moment, she added, "And the rest of the block, too."

"I don't believe—" Haku began, only to be cut off.

"No, she would, and we'd know about it," Temari interrupted. "It's always the quiet ones."

"So," Tenten tore her attention off the changing room door and back to the counter. "Is that...?" she asked, reaching out to take one of the scrolls.

A pair of tailoring scissors bit a set of matching gouges into the counter top, all of a half inch away from the bun-haired girl's finger-tips, causing her to jerk her hand back quickly. "Hold your horses and wait for those two. I want to make sure they work first."

"The set they had before worked fine," Tsunade pointed out, to which Dane nodded.

"Yeah, but I changed a few things in the design," the ninja-turned-tailor clarified.

A few minutes later, a slightly blushing Naruto hustled out of the changing room, followed by Hinata, who wore an amused smile. "Everything fits fine," the boy supplied, resolutely ignoring the snickering coming from his teammates.

"Well?" Dane asked impatiently of the two, motioning them to turn around.

"The sleeve was a nice idea, by the way," Hinata said, doing a quick turn beside the boy so the tailor could confirm that everything hung correctly. "It's a bit annoying to get into and get settled though."

Dane nodded. "I figured it would be, but it's either that or leave the tail visible. It's one of the reasons I left it a little loose—so you could get an arm in and straighten things out. Though, I suppose I could just put a zipper in it... Eh, maybe next time."

"I can do it on the road," Naruto suggested. It would take a day or two for each without chakra just to make sure he didn't botch it and mess up the invisibility effect, but it could be done.

After giving the pair a good look over, Tsunade gave the tailor a nod of approval. "I can tell the material looks much lighter." The outfits themselves were patterned after the original sets Naruto and Hinata had made—black and orange for Naruto, black and lavender for Hinata. Unlike the heavy winter set that looked more like leather than anything, the material was easily passed off as standard manufactured ninja wear at anything but a close inspection. The other main visible differences between this set and the original set was the addition of a hole for their tails in the back, a somewhat baggy sleeve that went over the tail and tied onto the pants with a drawstring that could be detached quickly if needed, and hoods that had fittings for their ears similar in look to the top of Kankuro's hood. Medium-thickness cloaks (thinner and lighter than the heavy ones they'd had in snow, but a bit heavier and thicker than another set of cloaks stored in the scrolls in the stack on the counter for summer, meant to keep the wearer concealed and water resistant but not overheat them), gloves (the pair opted to go with fingerless, but there was a set of full-fingered gloves stored in the scrolls), and shoes (partially armored at the toes, heels, and blades of the feet, between the outer and inner material) completed the new outfits. In the scrolls, though, were a set of tabi socks and a full facial mask, just in case.

"Alright, now for the real test," Dane instructed.

Naruto and Hinata both pulled the fitted hoods up, followed by the much larger hoods on the cloaks, which draped down over their faces at full extension but could be drawn up to look like normal hoods with another set of pull strings. A moment later, the pair disappeared. A sharp intake of breath drew Tsunade's attention to Yuugao, who was looking at the spot the pair still occupied wide-eyed. A moment later, the kunoichi squinted at the pair before turning and walking across the store to the door. Squinting again at them, she moved off to the far end of the store and then slowly started walking back. Assuming that the woman was attempting to determine an effective range on the mild distortion that outlined them, Hinata and Naruto quietly moved away from the group. Moving to the wall by the door, Hinata quickly scaled it and crawled along the ceiling towards the kunoichi, who appeared to have lost her but still had a general idea where Naruto was. A quiet flutter of air on cloth was the only warning Yuugao got as Hinata dropped nearly on top of her, not directly behind her, but in her blind side on the elder kunoichi's left, the fingers of her right hand and a kunai becoming visible as they flashed out of the long and loose sleeves—which would cover their hands at a relaxed position and allow room for hand seals, without getting in the way of movements such as the one Hinata had just executed. Yuugao flinched as the kunai nearly tapped her ANBU armor, and would have had she not stepped away at the last moment. It could have been a lethal strike, if Hinata were serious about it and had Yuugao not had some idea what was coming. The sound of a foot scuffing the ground behind her provided absolutely no warning to the ring of a kunai that thrust up and poked the light armor directly above her spine. In losing track of Naruto when she had dodged Hinata's strike, she had given the blond the opening he needed to duck down and maneuver around the elder kunoichi and follow up Hinata's strike with one of his own.

Yuugao froze, signaling the pair around her to as well as they released the chakra powering the material and became visible again. Hinata stood, right hand out in a missed kunai strike to the woman's heart, which would have slipped in between her ribs from behind her arm and slightly under her left breast. Naruto crouched behind her, right hand extended against Yuugao's back and a kunai held backwards, the ring at the end around his middle finger making contact with her armor—a clean and quiet kill, had he put a hand over her mouth. A second kunai was gripped in the boy's left hand, three quarters of the way to Yuugao's body and in position to strike her kidney—fatal and slow if untreated.

"Scary," Temari breathed, drawing nods from the rest of the group as the trio relaxed and moved back towards the others, the formerly invisible pair pulling their hoods back down.

"Is there anything you can do about the distortion?" Yuugao asked of Dane.

The tailor shook his head. "No. Believe me, I've tried. It's always going to leave that human-shaped outline, as far as I can tell. Maybe if you hid that with a genjutsu... but that would kind of ruin it."

Anko shook her head. "Yeah, but the entire point was that the stuff is pretty unknown and no one looks for it. It doesn't take much chakra, so unless you've got a chakra sensor in the group, you won't be able to pick the stuff out that way. As for cloaking it with genjutsu, well, it's a bad idea since if they _are_ looking for genjutsu, they're bound to pick it up and investigate. Hinata, how's it look through the Byakugan?"

"Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked. A moment later, the blond pulled his hoods up and disappeared again. "It's hard to spot if you don't know what you're looking for. Once you do, it stands out like a sore thumb. My guess is, any other Hyuuga would miss it unless they were close. I can't make out tenketsu or chakra coils, so Jyuuken would be difficult. All I see is a dim, person-shaped chakra outline."

"And the material naturally absorbs and uses chakra, so..." Dane threw in, leading.

Picking up where he was going, Hinata finished, "So trying to use Jyuuken from memory would be more difficult. Going for major organs might work..." At her questioning look, Naruto created a clone and released the chakra holding himself mostly-invisible before pulling back his hoods. Turning to the clone, Hinata struck at it with a normal chakra-powered Jyuuken strike, though kept the strike itself soft as to not accidentally pop the clone. The distortion over the material under the immediate vicinity of the strike grew more obvious for a moment, then smoothed out to normal. A second strike created a larger ripple in the distortion.

"I felt it that time," the clone pointed out. Before him, Hinata nodded and made a third strike, chakra visible as a faint blue glow around her fingers and causing the top half of her glove to distort. The clone popped with a burst of prismed light, chakra, and smoke when hit, this time.

"How much chakra was that?" Tsunade asked, impressed.

Hinata shrugged, releasing the chakra keeping her bloodline active. "A lot more than what it takes to close a normal person's tenketsu. It should be enough to damage organs, though with the material..."

As a whole, those not already wearing the outfits turned and held out a hand towards Dane. The retired ninja chuckled before beginning to pass out scrolls—each labeled individually. There was a frantic dash towards the changing rooms while Dane passed the last two scrolls to Naruto and Hinata, who unsealed their bags and stuffed them inside before resealing them. While the others were getting changed, the pair passed Dane their old clothes, where the tailor tossed them into a rubbish bin off to the side for that purpose. After all, one had to be prepared for ninja to come in covered with some pretty horrible things—human blood the least horrible among them—and demand a completely fresh set of clothing. This was also the reason for the small shower off to the side of the changing rooms—some of that unmentionable might still be wet when the ninja in question came in.

Several minutes of changing clothes and repacking bags later, the group was reassembled in front of the counter. Unlike Naruto and Hinata, they chose to keep their old clothes, simply because they still fit properly and they doubted they'd be wearing the chameleon material outside of missions, travel, and now practice. "There's one thing that bothers me though," Tsunade pointed out before amending her statement, "Well, two. Firstly: how are we supposed to see?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "The hood's nearly transparent from inside."

The elder blonde looked sheepish for a moment before murmuring, "Oh." After a collective eye-roll from the group, she went on to add, "Secondly: I'm pretty sure we haven't all been in here, so where'd the measurements come from?"

Nearly as one, the group turned their attention towards Naruto. The blond in question shook his head. "Don't look at me. Hinata's the only—erk." The boy quickly shut his mouth, but knew it was too late to throw them off his slip up. Thankfully, they chose to collectively ignore it, having another fact brought to their attention. Hinata had a kekkei genkai that could see through solid objects. Hinata also had absolutely no problem abusing this ability to peep on Naruto—and did it regularly, in fact.

The girl in question whistled a short tune and looked away, attempting to look innocent in the face of their suspicious stares. After a moment, she tossed out a distraction. "A better question would be, 'can my Byakugan see through the material while it's active, from inside?'"

Tsunade blinked. "Can it?"

Hinata shook her head. "No. And yes. I can see, and still see chakra, but not in enough detail for jyuuken. Looking out from inside is almost like... looking out at the world from behind a pair of glasses. You know they're there, but you don't really notice them unless something makes you. Looking at chakra is like looking at something through water. The effect is especially bad looking at another person wearing the material."

Nodding, Tsunade turned towards Haku. "You're cleared to use chakra, in moderation. No big jutsu and no kekkei genkai, especially when you're using this stuff." She had performed another exam on the injured nin the previous week and the injury looked to be healing well, if a bit faster than it had been at first. By her estimation, Haku would be capable of performing jutsu normally within six months to a year.

The ninja in question nodded. "Hai, Tsunade-sama."

The Sannin rolled her eyes. "You'll likely ignore my warning and do it anyway—everyone else does. If anything hurts for more than a few minutes, let me know."

"Soooo... can we go now?" Anko asked, practically bouncing. "I want to kill something already."

Temari blinked, looking between the hyperactive special jonin and the orange-clad blond, who was also nearly vibrating in excitement. "Is she always like this?" she asked of Yuugao beside her.

Yuugao nodded. "The similarities are startling."

"We need to be leaving soon, Tsunade-sama," Shizune pointed out.

Nodding, the Sannin turned back towards Dane. "Hitai-ate," she demanded, holding out a hand. A moment later, the retired ninja tossed her one he'd pulled out from under the counter. In turn, Tsunade tossed the headband at Yuugao, who caught it reflexively. "Wear that." When the kunoichi in question simply shrugged before pocketing her Konoha hitai-ate and slipping on the new one, leaving Tenten as the only person in the group still wearing a Konoha headband. Tsunade turned towards the doors and started leading the group out. "We'll be back when we get back," she said in parting, tossing a wave over her shoulder to Dane and Isaribi as she pushed her way out the door and turning for the road leading east out of town.

Naruto blinked as Haku drew along-side him, opposite Hinata. Anko had abandoned his elbow in favor of chatting up or flirting with Yuugao—the boy couldn't quite tell which, though knowing Anko, it was probably both. "Naruto-kun," Haku murmured, drawing the blond's attention. Sure the blond was listening, Haku quietly asked, "How are we getting to Water Country?"

After a moment of thought, the blond asked, "Wave?" Seeing Haku nod softly, Naruto turned his attention to Tsunade. "Oi! Baachan!"

Tsunade twitched. "What do you want, brat?"

"I want to go through Wave and check up on Inari."

Rolling her eyes, Tsunade nodded. "Fine, we'll go through Wave," she allowed, before turning back to discussing something with Shizune.

Naruto turned back to Haku. "We're passing through Wave to get there."

Haku nodded in thanks. "Thank you, Naruto-kun."

After a few moments, Hinata made sure Haku had wandered a few paces further from the blond and was currently describing Water Country for Temari while Tenten listened with half an ear. "That was sweet, Naruto-kun," Hinata murmured just loud enough for Naruto to hear before leaning over and planting a light kiss on his cheek, a small smile playing over her lips. The boy beside her blushed in embarrassment but did not fidget or move away from her.

* * *

Inuzuka Tsume looked up from her paperwork and, upon sighting her daughter, sighed. She'd felt it that morning, as she rolled out of bed and shuffled off to her kitchen to brew a pot of coffee—today was going to be _one of those days_. She had hoped it would simply be one of the many days where certain members of the council had some burr in their collective asses they would inevitably decide to dig out and bring to everyone's attention—she had smiled, remembering one event in particular in Kiba's childhood that she could compare it to ("Mommy, lookit!"). However, upon making it through breakfast and out the door, she decided that if the council were going to make themselves more of a nuisance than they usually were it would have to be that evening, otherwise someone would have shown up with a summons. Since there hadn't been anyone, she had decided that it would be something with the clinic. Today was Hana's day off and the girl was occasionally known for attempting to foist paperwork off on the few others that worked there, though everyone did that—herself included. There had been paperwork, but not enough to warrant her instincts sending up warning bells. Nor were there any particularly troublesome patients this morning. So, upon seeing her eldest child attempting (and failing) to sneak into the clinic, she knew something was out of sorts with her daughter. Looking back down to her paperwork, she decided to let this play out and see just how bad it was going to get.

The bell above the door rang and Tsume glanced up before turning her attention back towards the papers. "Uh, hi mom," Hana started lamely.

_'Yep, she sounds nervous. Wonder what she did this time?'_ The last time Hana had been this nervous about approaching her mother, she had somehow managed to let all of the animals in the clinic escape, but that had been years ago... "Good morning, Hana-chan," she returned, finally looking up from the paperwork and giving the girl her full scrutiny. Body language spoke volumes—especially to a ninja and most especially to those clans specialized in reading the subtle tells the human body gave off that were often difficult even for ninja to mask, and Tsume was a master of the art. And right now, her eldest child pretty much radiated nervous energy. Deciding to lighten the mood, she said, "I thought you'd be old enough to hide the bodies yourself by now."

Hana cringed slightly. "I look that bad?" Seeing her mother nod, she sighed before plopping down in the chair across from the Inuzuka clan head. "We alone?"

Tsume nodded. No one else was scheduled to come in today and the clan dogs were off doing who knew what. "What's this all about?" Come to think of it, Hana had been acting... _off_ for lack of a better word for the last few months. Tsume had simply chalked it up to boy troubles or being team related, since Hana had moved out some time ago and wasn't around all that often any more. Yet another reminder that her baby girl was all grown up and old enough to make her own decisions in life, and deal with the consequences of those decisions.

Hana nibbled her bottom lip a moment before blurting, "I'm going to do something really stupid and I wanted to let you know before I did it." After a moment, she added, "I'm not asking your permission, I'm going to do it whether I have that or not. I just wanted you to know..."

And everything clicked into place for Tsume. "When are you leaving?" Seeing the look of surprise on her daughter's face, she rolled her eyes. "You know, I didn't know for sure you were going to leave until I saw that face," she smirked, receiving a glare in response. "Who else is going?"

"I shouldn't say," Hana protested. A warning rumble from her mother caused her to start before answering. "Ok, fine! Tonight!"

"I assume this is Jiraiya's idea?"

Sending her mother a suspicious look, Hana answered, "Maybe."

"Oh come on," Tsume waved off her daughter's concern. "It's not like it wasn't obvious from the beginning. Some of the old bastards on the council got their knickers in a knot over the Uchiha traitor and decided to take it out on Mi—Naruto," she corrected herself before she could say 'Minato's boy,' though her daughter caught the slip and shot her another suspicious look. After all, when Sarutobi first announced that the boy was the container for the Kyuubi, there had been a big commotion over what to do with the boy and where to put him. Many of the clan heads looking to take him in, herself included, had at least been in close proximity to the boy. And, well, the nose knows. Sure, the boy had smelled a bit like fox and a lot like baby, but mostly he smelled of Minato and that redhead from Whirlpool he had always been hanging around with before she stopped showing herself around the village. Tsume was one of the very few who knew for certain just whose child he was, but as with the rest of the clans, had been blocked from taking the boy in. She would have taken the boy in had they let her—cautiously, if not gladly—out of simple duty and obligation to Kage and Village. But that was getting off course, and what was done couldn't be undone.

"Tsunade leaving was a given to anyone who actually _knew_ the woman. Taking the Hyuuga girl was unexpected, but ambitious," here, Tsume smirked. What little she knew of the once-heiress of that particular clan was that the girl had been gravely mishandled after the death of her mother and, prior to leaving, was not exactly what Tsume would have called future clan head material. That didn't mean that the girl couldn't or wouldn't change, and being with someone like Tsunade of the Sannin change was almost guaranteed. How much she would change and into what was entirely up to the Hyuuga girl. But being the only female in Naruto's age range aside from Shizune... well, there was a reason most marriages in the ninja population happened amongst teammates. And at least creating a situation to add the Hyuuga bloodline without all of the negative stigma attached to it—namely everything that came with separating the clan into main and branch houses—to whatever natural aptitude Minato and... Kushina, she believed the woman's name had been; whatever they had passed along to Naruto, along with whatever the Kyuubi would bring to the table... it was quite ambitious of Tsunade indeed, even if that hadn't been the Sannin's intent. "And since the first thing Jiraiya tried to do when he came into office was to have the exile on Uzumaki lifted and those old farts wouldn't budge on the issue... I'm honestly surprised he's put up with it for this long." After a moment, she added, "Probably wanted to make sure they carved his face in the monument before he left."

Hana snorted. "Sounds about right."

"Jiraiya leaving isn't all that unexpected, but why you?" Tsume finally got around to asking what was on her mind.

Rubbing the back of her neck in embarrassment, Hana shrugged. "It's the right thing to do?" she tried, though it sounded lame even to her own ears.

"'The right thing to do' is to abandon your home, your family, your comrades—the people you have loved, fought alongside, supported and have been supported by—just because a couple of old ninja won't accept that sometimes, sacrifices have to be made?"

Hana winced. "Well, when you put it that way—"

Tsume nodded. "Yes, when you put it that way it does sound bad." She waited a moment, giving Hana time to let that sink in before continuing. "It _is_ the right thing to do, but it doesn't mean that everyone will see it that way. You know I love you and I'll support you in whatever you want to do, but not everyone is going to be as open-minded about this as I am." Sighing, she guessed, "Those friends of yours are either already there or plan to go?"

"Anko and Yuugao are there, Kurenai's the one who brought me in on it," Hana confirmed.

"I can't do it, you know." Seeing Hana's questioning look, Tsume elaborated. "The clan isn't ready to leave Konoha just yet. Most won't be until there's no Konoha left."

"I know. I'm not asking you to move the clan just for me."

Tsume rolled her eyes. "Well, it wouldn't be just for you. It would have to be for the good of the clan as a whole. The town was already in pretty bad shape after Orochimaru's failed invasion. Tsunade leaving has nearly broken this village. But there are those among us who believe we can soldier on, and they won't be convinced until it's falling down around their ears, which is very likely to happen when Jiraiya leaves. Maybe if those two Sannin had some other option for us, but otherwise... no."

"What, you mean like another hidden village?" Hana asked, sounding surprised at the suggestion.

"Why not?" Tsume shrugged. "If one Sannin can do it—and well enough to cripple Konoha, when they started that little tussle—then the other two shouldn't have any problem with it."

Hana shook her head. "Yeah, but their ranks are made up mostly of missing-nin..." She trailed off, seeing her mother nod.

"Which can be recruited to bolster ranks with an offer of shelter from hunter-nin, so long as you don't mind the fact that they're missing-nin and their loyalties are questionable. And which is exactly what you're planning to become—Hokage's written decree to the contrary or not, it's the same thing."

"No it's—"

"Remember what I said about things being one way and people seeing them another?" Tsume interrupted. "My guess is, after this, everyone who leaves to join up with Tsunade and Jiraiya will be treated as missing-nin, even if some decree from on high says Konoha-nin can't outright attack them. Those who know what's actually happening may see it differently, but popular opinion is likely to be that they're all traitors—the Sannin especially. It's going to stir up a shitstorm of proportions not seen since the Uchiha and Senju clan heads duked it out, and everyone associated with Tsunade's group is going to be standing right in the eye of it."

"I know."

"Well, as long as you know exactly what it is you're getting yourself into," Tsume smiled before standing and moving around her desk to hug her eldest child. "Now, you'd best be going if you plan to leave before our beloved Hokage pulls off whatever distraction he's going to use to cover your escape."

Standing as her mother released her, Hana nodded. "Thanks mom, for everything."

Tsume turned back towards her seat, waving off the girl's thanks. Hearing the door open again, she called out, "One last thing," bringing Hana up short. Turning back to regard her daughter with a serious look, she added, "Avoid bathhouses when that particular Sannin is around."

"Will do!" Hana giggled, causing Tsume to break out into a smile of her own as the eldest Inuzuka child left the clinic.

Glancing at the clock on her desk, Tsume rolled her eyes and shot a glare at her paperwork. No way she'd be able to get anything more done today. Pulling out her keys to the clinic, she locked up and made her way into town. She knew she had a couple of hours at least to kill before Jiraiya left, so she intended to spend it lurking around the shopping center and listening in on conversations to get a feel for what the general population knew. _'I just hope she knew I was being serious about the bathhouses.'_

* * *

_'Hyuuga Hanabi—heir to the Hyuuga clan,'_ Hanabi mused, silently following her father as they made their way into the village square below the Hokage Tower, through the throng of spectators and towards the front of the crowd where the rest of the clan heads and their heirs would be gathered. She had only been officially named clan head the previous day and she was still getting used to the idea—oh, she had known her elder sister was too weak to become clan head, but there was always the off chance Hinata may either surpass the family's expectations or they would hand the title over to her regardless of Hanabi's superior skill. She didn't know whether to feel excited, relieved, or... cheated. After all, she hadn't truly earned the title. As far as the rest of the clan (the main house, at any rate) was concerned, Hanabi had never had a sister and thus, had always been destined to become succeed Hiashi. And as much as she hated her sister for her weakness, her compassion for those beneath them, for remembering their mother when Hanabi couldn't... Hanabi still loved and looked up to her elder sister. She couldn't understand why Hinata would abandon their clan to run off with their former Hokage because some annoying boy that everyone hated had been thrown out of the village... couldn't understand why Hinata would abandon _her own sister_ for someone that wasn't family and that she barely knew.

Putting aside her feelings of betrayal, Hanabi turned her attention up towards their Hokage as he walked out onto a balcony several floors up, overlooking the square and giving everyone a good view of him. The position was perfect really—above the crowd as the Hokage was above the other ninja of the village, but not so high up as to be unreachable. She did not know it, but similar thoughts were running through her father's mind, along with the thought that it _he_ were Hokage, or Danzou, or had Orochimaru been Hokage, they would have been on the balcony of the top floor—as far from those below them as the gods were to men, instead of previous Hokage's attempts to be close to the people literally and symbolically.

Above them, at that moment, Jiraiya now wished he _had_ gone for the top floor. Going for the image of an angry, disapproving god looking down on the masses would have probably worked better for what he had in mind. Taking a deep breath, Jiraiya began his speech. "I would like to thank you all for gathering here tonight—all of you liars, and cowards, and betrayers." Below him, a murmur passed through the crowd. A spike of killing intent shut them up. Jiraiya may have cultivated a friendly—if perverted—mask to show to the public, but under it all, he was still a ninja and it was time to remind them why he was a Sannin, and why he was Hokage. "You have all, each and every last one of you, betrayed Konoha and the memory of one of our greatest heroes. In your ignorance and fear, you have ignored, shunned, cursed, and spit on one of the greatest gifts this village has ever been given."

Sensing her father had gone very, very stiff and very still beside her, Hanabi looked up at his stoic face and asked, "Father, what does he mean?"

"Hush, Hanabi," Hiashi murmured absently, quieting himself as Jiraiya spoke again. _'Dear gods, he's actually going to do it.'_

"Thirteen years ago, a force of nature made manifest ravaged this village. It could not be killed and nothing we threw at it seemed to bother it. And yet, in sacrificing his life to save it all, Yondaime Hokage managed to stop it. Those of you who were there though, you know the truth. Not even Yondaime could kill the great Kyuubi—so he sealed it. No inanimate object could hold Kyuubi though, and likely, any animal would simply be possessed and we'd be right back where we started. It had to be sealed into a human being—someone with a mind and a force of will strong enough to subdue the beast and hold it at bay from the rest of the village—a jailer, to keep it safely locked away behind that seal. Unfortunately, an adult's chakra coils are already set in their ways and wouldn't be able to adapt in time. So, it had to be a child—specifically, a newborn. Only one child was born that night, and even if there had been more than one... Yondaime would not ask someone to sacrifice what he himself was unwilling, so he used his own son as the living container for the Kyuubi: Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto. Minato—Yondaime—wanted Naruto to be seen as a hero... a living sacrifice, keeping every last one of us safe every day of his life, simply by being alive and telling Kyuubi to go fuck itself.

"Unfortunately, Naruto's mother died during childbirth and the boy was left orphaned—just as much a victim of Kyuubi's attack as the rest of us. Sandaime made the decision to keep Naruto's heritage secret—he felt that knowing the boy's sacrifice would be enough to fulfill Minato's last wish. He was wrong. I can't fault his reasoning though. The Yellow Flash made a lot of enemies during the last war; on top of that, being the son of a Hokage and being a living container for one of the Bijuu—it would have been too risky. Unfortunately, Sarutobi-sensei didn't take into account the fact that you lot are a bunch of worthless cowards and bullies, too hurt or too stupid to see the truth when it's right in front of you and too afraid to accept that maybe, just maybe, Yondaime Hokage knew what he was doing when he crafted the seal keeping Kyuubi locked up. All you could ever see was the fox. All these years you've been treating our greatest hero—the son of the man who almost single-handedly broke the back of the last war and who put a stop to Kyuubi—like trash. Sandaime knew it. Tsunade knew it. And I know it. And as I look out over you now, all I see is trash. No, Minato had saying about that: those who don't follow the rules are trash, those who abandon their comrades are less than that. You make me sick and honestly, I'm tired of looking at you. Those of you who can dig your heads out of your asses may one day be worth forgiving. Those of you who can't? Well, you aren't worth my time and I am honestly ashamed to call myself your Hokage, if it means I have to represent the likes of you. So, I'm leaving. I quit." Jiraiya turned to walk off the balcony before pausing, then turned and picked up the hat he had left leaning against the railing before placing it atop his head. "Oh, and I'm taking the hat with me."

Jiraiya _poof!_ed. In the distance, an deafening explosion bathed the sky in orange and shook the ground for miles around. Without turning to look, Hiashi knew the Namikaze estate had just gone up in a blaze of glory—the seals around it collapsed and the property turned into the equivalent of a giant explosive tag. A second explosion, much closer this time, rocked the ground and nearly threw the crowd from their feet. Though he did not know it, ROOT headquarters had also gone up in a similar fashion (hopefully, with more than a few ROOT-nin still inside it), though the explosion wasn't quite a flashy as that of the Namikaze estate. And beside him, Hyuuga Hanabi's perfect, isolated little world had just shattered and was in the process of collapsing in on itself. "He's Yondaime's son..." the girl murmured.

Looking down, Hiashi answered, though he knew his daughter was talking more to herself than anyone. "Yes."

"You knew?"

A pause. "Yes."

"Then Hinata...?" _'She left us... because she saw us how Jiraiya-sama saw us. And I was—I treated her like...'_ For the first time in years, Hanabi silently cried as she walked alongside her father, face downcast to hide the shame of her tears.

Hiashi refused to answer, instead, taking his daughter's hand in his own and leading her back towards the compound. Behind them, things were already starting to get out of control and the sounds of an impending riot reached their ears, urging Hiashi to hurry back to the relative safety of the Hyuuga compound. _'Things are only going to get worse for us, from here on out,'_ he mused. And Hiashi was dead on in his assessment. At the same time the Jiraiya clone dispersed and the Namikaze estate went up, the entirety of the remaining contents of the treasury disappeared in a cloud of smoke and chakra, along with the contents of the main library, the ANBU private research library, the family fortunes of several council members, and the contents of several forbidden and abandoned laboratories below Konoha—after all, it wouldn't do to leave something so dangerous in desperate hands, even if Jiraiya never had any intention of using it.

* * *

"That was a nice speech," Kurenai murmured, glancing at the crystal ball held in the Sannin's hands.

Shooting the curvy, red-eyed kunoichi a leer, Jiraiya answered, "Thanks."

"Naruto-kun is..." Ichiraku Ayame was beginning to hyperventilate. _'Breathe Ayame, breathe! Slow, deep breaths... But he's Yondaime's son!'_

Hana sighed as she caught the ramen chef's daughter, slinging her up onto her back in a piggy-back carry. "Well, that was surprising," the Inuzuka heiress deadpanned.

"Considering it's Naruto," Kurenai paused, rolling her eyes in slight exasperation before continuing, "I would honestly be surprised if there were nothing to be surprised about with that boy."

"You're taking this remarkably well," Jiraiya pointed out, pocketing Sandaime's crystal ball.

Narrowing her eyes, Kurenai held out her hand. "Gimme. And to be honest, I suspected as much. He looks like a miniature Yondaime, after all."

"Like I said, staring them in the faces," Jiraiya sighed, fishing the orb out and handing it to Kurenai.

The jonin shrugged. "People only see what they want to see. And speaking of seeing, how do you work this thing?"

It was Jiraiya's turn to shrug. "Dunno. You just do." At Kurenai's skeptical look, the Sannin added, "Sarutobi kept a couple of fakes around the office in case someone ever stole one, but no one but him could tell the difference on looking anyway. And most people can't use it, for whatever reason. Tsunade couldn't, but she just thought there was some jutsu to it. There's not. Like I said, it just works. Or it doesn't. And it looks like it doesn't like you."

"I refuse to believe that," Kurenai denied, focusing her attention back onto the crystal ball.

Huffing in irritation at being ignored, Hana spoke up. "So, why are we headed towards Suna again? I thought Tsunade-sama's team was in Otafuku Gai."

"I've got business with the Kazekage," Jiraiya answered simply.

"It's better for security. We traveled through toad to get here, so there's no scent trail to follow for miles. We'll be in Suna by the time they find it. When they figure out which way we're going, the threat of rushing into another village's sovereign territory and starting an international incident will slow them down," Kurenai answered distractedly. After a moment of pause, her face lit up in excitement. "Ah ha! I've got it!"

"Eh?" Hana asked, echoed by Jiraiya as the pair looked over Kurenai's shoulder. Currently, the sphere's viewing area showed an aerial view of Otafuku Gai. Nodding in understanding, Jiraiya directed Kurenai to move the area towards where he remembered Neji's report said the house Team Hokage had procured was located. It took several minutes of searching, but eventually, they had it. "Looks like no one's home," Hana pointed out.

"Too bad you can't just focus in on one..." Jiraiya shut up when the view suddenly blurred, miles and miles of trees and ground whipping by to come to a dead stop on Uzumaki Naruto. Beside him, Hinata twitched in her sleep and hugged her blond body pillow tighter. The pair were nestled inside Naruto's sleeping bag, the embers of a small campfire burning nearby lighting the area. Around them, several other young women (and Tsunade) slept—most of them two to a bag. Movement off to one side drew their attention to a Naruto-clone facing away from the fire keeping watch—they suspected there were more and that was just the one in plain sight. Jiraiya's face split into a perverted grin. "Brat, I am very impressed," the Sannin mused. The crystal ball went dark and Kurenai pocketed it. "Hey! What'd you do that for?"

Kurenai rolled her eyes. "I won't have you peeping on my student, you old lecher."

Jiraiya snorted. "Like she's got anything I haven't seen before," the old man mumbled.

Unfortunately for his immediate future, Kurenai heard him. "What was that, you child molester?" the woman all but growled.

"Hey guys," Hana spoke up, putting the impending argument on hold and catching their attention. "When are we setting up camp?"

Trading a look, Kurenai shrugged before Jiraiya answered. "We might as well go ahead and stop for the night. We're only a day or so from River Country. It'll take them a while to get here."

"Great," Hana sighed, putting Ayame down. "So, uh... this may sound like a dumb question since I'm just a chuunin and all but... If you can use that thing to peep on bathhouses and spy on Tsunade-sama's group, why can't you, I don't know, point it at Iwa or something?"

Jiraiya blinked. Kurenai blinked. "The chakra requirement...?" Kurenai questioned, getting a shake of the head from Jiraiya.

"It doesn't use chakra, even the natural stuff."

"Seals interfere with it?"

Another shake of the head. "Looks right through them. Hell, I remember seeing seals when Sarutobi-sensei used to peek in on the Uchiha bathhouses."

There was a collective blink before Kurenai fumbled madly for the crystal ball and brought it up so she and Jiraiya could determine its range and limits. Across from them, Hana shook her head before going off to gather firewood. "We really did trade common sense for chakra at birth."

* * *

**Author's Notes: **I broke my dry spell and wrote over half of this in one day. All I needed was a little inspiration, apparently, and suddenly ideas started flooding in for the immediate future. It was nice. I hope you enjoy it, and Happy Holidays.


	25. Planning for the Future

**The Missing Hokage**

**25: Planning for the Future**

* * *

Yuuhi Kurenai woke to the not-entirely-uncomfortable feeling of a very grabby kunoichi attached firmly to her back in the cramped confines of her sleeping bag. Rolling her eyes in exasperation, Kurenai carefully disentangled herself from her younger friend and rolled out of the bag. The cold air hitting her exposed skin made her immensely grateful she had decided to sleep mostly clothed. Quickly throwing on her nearby sandals and jacket, Kurenai glanced around the camp to take stock of their surroundings. The few toads Jiraiya had summoned the night before to keep watch were gone, as was the Sage himself. Below her, Hana had curled into herself and drawn the rest of the sleeping bag closed. Nearby, Ichiraku Ayame slept peacefully in her own bag. Kurenai hummed in observation at that—the girl was no kunoichi, though she knew from both observation and questioning her that Ayame, like a majority of those in that age range, had at least been through basic academy training up to the genin exam. Ayame, by her own words, had at least kept up with the requisite genin exercise regimen—though mostly to maintain her figure and because she, like any woman, didn't like feeling defenceless. The waitress/ramen chef had even packed like a ninja—basic essentials only, and light for fast travel, even though it wasn't needed when they had sealed all of their gear into scrolls anyway.

Turning her attention away from her traveling companions, present and missing, Kurenai extended her senses and felt for the threads of chakra making up the genjutsu she had layered over the area the previous night. Satisfied that it was still in place and undamaged, Kurenai followed the chakra back to its anchor point and broke it, dropping the genjutsu that would have shown anyone passing through just more of the same empty field as opposed to the camp-site underneath. That done, the jonin restarted the fire that had burned down during the night with the last of the wood Hana had gathered. Rummaging around in her supplies, Kurenai came up with a kettle and the makings for tea, along with a cup for herself. Putting the water on to boil, the red-eyed jonin went in search of the missing Sannin. It didn't take her long to find him, sitting against one of the few large trees in the area and facing the sun rising in the distance. The Sannin didn't look up from where he was studying the crystal ball—which she knew she still had when she had gone to sleep the previous night—though Kurenai knew he was aware of her approach.

Glancing over the Sannin's shoulder, she took in the scene playing out in the sphere. Once again, it was focused on Naruto and Hinata—though it seemed the two had shifted in their sleep, the blond with both arms firmly around the former Hyuuga and his face buried in the valley of her breasts. Hinata didn't seem to mind—in fact, it looked more like she had either encouraged it or had dragged him there some time during the night, as her own arms were holding the boy's head firmly in place. A closer inspection showed that Hinata's shirt had ridden up and she was probably bare from the breasts down, though the sleeping bag made it impossible to confirm—with the exception that Kurenai now knew for a fact that her student wasn't wearing a bra. Around them, the others were beginning to stir as their camp-site was slowly brightening—it was noticeably brighter than their own, Kurenai noted, which put them a few hundred kilometers east of their position at the least. The only person awake at the moment on that side of the sphere seemed to be Tsunade, who was doing much the same as Jiraiya and Kurenai were—that is, looking on the pair and waiting for the inevitable embarrassment.

"What have I told you about peeping on my student?" Kurenai asked, her tone warning, though both she and the Sannin knew she likely wouldn't do anything about it seeing as she was equally guilty. That, and Jiraiya didn't seem to be peeping so much as looking on fondly, just as she was—though he hid it better.

After a moment, Jiraiya made a quiet observation that would leave Kurenai something to think on for some time to come. "She's just like her mother was, during her genin days."

"Mm?" Kurenai hummed inquisitively, sensing juicy gossip material and urging the Sannin to elaborate.

"She had this huge crush on Minato," the Sannin continued. "She did stuff like that all the time." After a moment, the old ninja chuckled before continuing. "Of course, Minato earned another nickname during his tenure as Hokage with good reason. 'Blondaime Hokage' was completely oblivious to anything even resembling a hint."

"So, what happened?" Kurenai asked, sitting beside the Sannin to get a better view of the sphere, where the pair centered therein were beginning to stir. To Kurenai's mild disappointment, Naruto's only reaction on waking to a face-full of breasts was to yawn and pull Hinata's shirt back into place. The look of fond irritation that passed over Hinata's face was not missed by either of the Sannin or the genjutsu mistress. This, of course, lead Kurenai to wonder exactly how far along her once nearly terminally shy student had developed away from Konoha and the Hyuuga clan.

Jiraiya shook his head and pocketed the sphere before standing and offering Kurenai a hand up. "Well, they grew up. This cute little redhead came along and had her way with Minato—pretty much the only way he'd ever take a clue was if someone beat him over the head with one, and Kushina did. Repeatedly. Hoshino... never really grew out of her crush on Minato, but she went on to 'hold true to her duty to the clan.'" The Sannin snorted, leading Kurenai to suspect the woman had used those words exactly. "Hiashi was less of a jackass back then, but still a jackass. I think he knew about it, and that's why he hated Minato. Oh, Hiashi respected him for sure, but never trusted him beyond his capacity as Hokage and a ninja of the Leaf. A few years later, Kushina died giving birth to Naruto—or so the official story goes. That woman was healthy as a horse and I've had my doubts on that theory for a while. A couple of months after that, Hinata was born. Considering what I found in Minato's home, I think they planned it."

Throwing the Sannin a puzzled look, Kurenai hummed in thought before coming to the obvious conclusion. Hiashi's marriage had been arranged well before he and Hizashi were conceived and rumor had it, Hiashi's was a loveless marriage. Hinata's mother had tolerated Hiashi, even liked him, but there had been no love there if murmurings within the branch house of the clan and now Jiraiya's own observations were correct. "What exactly did you find?"

Jiraiya smirked. "Betrothal contracts."

The red-eyed jonin blinked, asking, "Plural?"

"Yup," the Sannin nodded. "Nothing that would have _forced_ either of Hiashi's daughters to marry, but seeing as they were both to Yondaime's heir, they would have preempted pretty much any attempts on the clan elders' or Hiashi's part to marry either girl off. They're worded fairly openly. Basically, until they decide for themselves otherwise or until they turned twenty-five both Hinata and... oh what was that kid's name?"

"Hanabi."

Nodding his thanks, Jiraiya continued. "Right, Hanabi. Both of them are betrothed to Naruto until they choose otherwise or turn twenty-five. Present tense. They would have been, had Minato and Kushina survived the night, but as they didn't and Naruto was officially orphaned and claimed as a ward of the village—Sarutobi hid the truth pretty deep, but he kept the original birth certificate."

"And let me guess," Kurenai interrupted, "Before you made that announcement you went ahead and made it official on paper, turning over the Namikaze name to Naruto and pushing through those contracts." Seeing Jiraiya's smirk, Kurenai grinned. "Oh, Hiashi's going to be pissed when he finds out."

"Probably not, seeing as he already knew," Jiraiya corrected. "His signatures and personal hanko were on the contracts as well as Hoshino's, Minato's personal stamp and the Yondaime Hokage's seal, and Kushina's. I'm guessing that at the time, he thought it may be beneficial—or maybe he decided to be a little rebellious towards the clan elders. No one knows now but Hiashi. Of course, when Minato and Kushina died and Sarutobi forbade anyone who knew from disclosing Naruto's lineage, that put a damper on the plan."

They lapsed into silence for several minutes, until Kurenai broke it as the camp-site came into view. Ayame had woken up, dressed, and was sipping tea. Hana had yet to crawl out of the bag. "If you knew all of that, why didn't you come back? Or at least check in on them every now and then? You know, take up the responsibility they left to you?"

Jiraiya's shrug was not the answer she had been expecting. "I wasn't ready for it, I suppose. Really, I'm still not." Before Kurenai could continue, he motioned for her to be silent. "I won't blame him if he thinks that isn't good enough. If he'll let me, I'll own up to my mistake and try to make up for it. If not... Well, I'm still going to try." Seeing the kunoichi nod, he quietly added, "And what I told you before? Keep it to yourself." At her questioning look, Jiraiya clarified, "The plan was to keep the contracts secret. The entire point behind them was to offer legal protection, not have the weight of arranged marriage hanging over their heads as it had with the girls' parents. Which is also why the four of them were the only signatories, with Minato using his position to make it official as opposed to going to one of the clerk's offices or having Sarutobi sign off on it."

Kurenai nodded. "I agree. I'd feel better giving them the choice. What about Hanabi though?"

"What about her?" Jiraiya asked dismissively. "There is no Hyuuga Elder Council any more—I had them killed myself, remember? As for Hiashi... well, he likely won't have to worry about it long. Likely, Hinata will decide to go after her on her own eventually and the Hyuuga main family will have lost both their heirs. Maybe that will be enough to end this Main House/Branch House bullshit. And if not, well... We may have a use for some disgruntled Hyuuga. Even if we only get the sealed Branch and there are still Main House Hyuuga out there with a grudge, we could always hide them until they can bear unsealed children."

"Recruiting already?"

The Toad Sannin smirked. "Well, a ninja village needs ninja. Depending on how things look in the future, we should probably try and sway some of the larger clans from Konoha. Well, that is, if Tsunade agrees and we decide to go through on Tsume's idea of just starting our own village. Orochimaru did it pretty much from the ground up with a few promises of power and a lot of missing-nin—we're already ahead of where he was when he started, seeing as we've got Konoha's funds at our disposal and we aren't wanted by the majority of the other villages."

"And how long will that last once word of Naruto's parentage spreads?" Kurenai asked, as they sat down around the camp-fire. Accepting a cup of tea from Ayame, Kurenai absently reached over and kicked the lump in her sleeping bag until Hana rolled out onto the cold ground.

"Huh? What time is it?" the Inuzuka heiress murmured sleepily, accepting a cup of tea absently.

"Almost time to clear out. I want to be on the move in half an hour. I've sent the toads ahead, but Suna's border is about as far as they can go—too dry further in and Suna's got some of the best chakra sensors of any of the hidden villages. Just showing up a few miles out from their village wouldn't look good, even if we're technically friendly." Turning his attention back to Kurenai, he answered, "As for Naruto... well, you know how the saying goes. 'Hope for the best, plan for the worst.'"

Kurenai blinked. "Tsunade told you to hold off on leaving, didn't she?" Seeing Jiraiya look like he had swallowed a bug, Kurenai rolled her eyes. "She's going to put you in a hospital for this. Especially for making Naruto an even bigger target than he already was."

"Probably," he agreed.

"So we're going to Suna to ask their demon vessel -turned-Kage, who happens to be a friend of Naruto-kun, for shelter and asylum if we ever need it?" Ayame asked, drawing a look from both the Sannin and Kurenai. After a moment, the ramen waitress rolled her eyes. "What? Just because I'm quiet doesn't mean I don't know what's going on. I was in the top ten of my class come graduation day. I'm not a ninja because daddy pitched a fit about his baby girl going off to kill people and because at the time I wanted to stick around and keep an eye on Naruto." Ayame left out the fact that she had intentionally flunked the practical on graduation day and had put in her withdrawal from the academy the next day.

After a beat, Kurenai smiled. "So, how do you feel about becoming a ninja?"

"Not interested," the waitress answered flatly.

"Too bad," the Sannin leered. "If you've got the skill, we're not going to let it go to waste. And you're dead on about why we're going. Sabaku no Gaara's bijuu gives him pretty much absolute control over sand. Suna is surrounded by the stuff, what with being in the middle of a desert. Trying to mass an attack against Suna with him watching over the place would be suicide, and the other villages know it."

"What do you plan to offer up in return?" Kurenai asked, out of curiosity.

Shrugging, Jiraiya answered, "Well, if Tsunade agrees, we could offer our services when they need them. I'm a seal master and she's the best medic in the Elemental Nations, despite what Chiyo—that's their own resident med-nin of grand-master skill—will undoubtedly say to the contrary. Those two don't really get along. And last I saw him, Gaara looked like he's been suffering sleep deprivation for years. His seal's likely faulty. If I could fix it, he'd owe us big."

When Hana finally achieved functional wakefulness, the foursome broke camp and took up a decent pace—well, decent considering they weren't trying to hurry so much as move away from the camp-site to appease Jiraiya's ingrained paranoia about staying in one place for too long while on the road. In the afternoon they stopped for lunch and shortly after, Kurenai put Ayame through a skill assessment test similar to the exam she had given her own team, though geared for one person as opposed to a team. Unfortunately for the ramen chef's daughter, Kurenai and Jiraiya both agreed that she passed despite her attempts otherwise. Shortly after that, Jiraiya summoned a toad and the foursome crossed through one toad to the other to find themselves on a grassy plain near the River/Wind border.

"Alright, this is as far as we go by toad. For the next day or two it's all day-travel through the desert. Suna's not that far in, so if we keep a decent pace we won't have to deal with it for too long. Hope you brought your insulated undies—nights are going to be cold." Looking between the three kunoichi, Jiraiya gestured towards the ground. "We'll rest here a while and then set out again in an hour or two." So saying, the Sannin dropped his gear, spread out a sleeping bag, and flopped down onto it. The wide-brimmed hat that came with his former position was unsealed from a scroll and pulled down over his eyes and Jiraiya proceeded to nap.

* * *

Of course, the morning wasn't quite as peaceful for some as it was for others.

"What do you mean, 'she's gone?'" Gone where?" Kiba asked, though he was careful to keep his irritation out of his voice. His mother frequently reminded him that she was still bigger and stronger than he was and could still keep him in line if she had to. At least she hadn't done it in public since he had started the academy.

"You always did take after your father more than me," Tsume lamented quietly, though Kiba heard it. Even if he hadn't, he'd heard that phrase enough to recognize when his mom was thinking it—usually any time he said or did anything a bit dumb. "Where do you think, idiot?" As he opened his mouth, she cut him off. "That was rhetorical!" Kiba's jaw snapped shut. "She left with Jiraiya-sama and some friends. They're probably going to meet up with Tsunade-sama."

Kiba blinked. "Well, that explains why she's been acting weird. So why'd Hana leave?"

Tsume rolled her eyes. "Because she thought it was the right thing to do. Besides, we need her there."

"What for?"

"Have you been into the village since last night?" Tsume asked in return. Seeing him shake his head, she continued. "Don't, unless you need to, and if you do then make it fast. Give things a while to settle down. Jiraiya hit them pretty hard and the civilians are stirred up like a hornet's nest."

"Oh come on, that thing about Naruto was just a joke or something, right? Everyone knows Yondaime never got married," Kiba pointed out. After all, the academy covered personal history lessons of the previous Hokages and what they knew of the Kages of the other villages.

"Trust me, it's true. And that isn't what has them so pissed—well, not all of it. Jiraiya emptied the treasury when he left. Rumor has it, he pilfered a lot off of the merchants too. And the libraries. And pretty much anything else that wasn't bolted down or buried. As it stands, Konoha is broke and pretty vulnerable at the moment. I'm surprised the ANBU were able to put down that riot last night without resorting to killing people."

"Why the library? There isn't much in the way of techniques actually written down, except maybe in clan collections." Kiba asked.

Tsume grinned. "No, there aren't any jutsu on scrolls in the main library above C-rank. Nothing that would be useful to the other villages or anyone stealing them, anyway. What it _did _have was history, science, literature, the arts—and a lot of it and more. Do you have any idea how many of the books and scrolls we had could be considered priceless? It's worth a fortune in and of itself, and the knowledge available is a huge asset. Hell, a good portion of it was summoned—not native by any means. Either from across the ocean or from who knows where. And he didn't just take the stuff from the main library, he took the stuff from the ANBU private library, the hospital library, even the academy library. Advanced jutsu theory, advanced chakra theory, medical knowledge, and even the basics to build up to that stuff. We're stuck teaching and learning by example and word of mouth until we can get or make replacements for the basics. All of the stuff most of you runts pass off as being useless? It actually has a purpose and with it gone, you're missing out on things you'll need later on in your ninja career. The ANBU stuff is just lost, since it was one of a kind. Konoha has no funds to pay our ninja, our ninja academy is crippled since we don't have the cash for it and most instructors won't be able to adapt to be worth anything without the books since no one can remember every facet of the lessons they teach, the private sector is fucked since anyone with any money held back is going to either sit on it or get the hell out of town and that means no tax revenue, and the Fire Lord is likely to start looking elsewhere for missions as we pretty much have to raise the price of missions and the quality of the coming generation of ninja is going to be in severe decline. And in case you haven't noticed, about every third woman is starting to show so we're in for a population boom soon. That's going to put more financial strain on those families, cutting into any disposable income they may have had and making them less inclined to spend on anything but the necessities." There was a _reason_ Tsume was on the Council, and it wasn't just that she was the head of a major clan.

Little did Tsume know just how busy Jiraiya had _really_ been. Between himself, Kurenai, Iruka, and Tenzo and those ANBU he trusted, Jiraiya had managed to ferret out nearly every business that had done Naruto even remotely wrong—anyone who had ever denied him service, overcharged him, or chased him out when other customers had come along. Every baker, every grocer, every clothing store, book store, weapon and gear supplier—not one had been spared, and every one of them had gone in either the previous night or this morning to find inventory gone, storage rooms emptied, and equipment missing, bare floors and walls leaving no sign that they had once been a prosperous business. Over the next few weeks, those with the resources to purchase new inventory would find it mysteriously gone the next morning, until eventually ninja would find the seals that had been at the root of the problem. Of course, the moment someone became aware of the seals they would self-destruct, setting fire to the buildings in question and starting the whole mess over again while leaving no real evidence behind and no way to use the seals to reclaim the pilfered material. The seal holding Kyuubi prisoner within Naruto was a prime example of what a genius could do with seals given some time and an idea of what needed to be done—and the Sannin who Yondaime had at one time called Master (if only on paper) had had _years_ to develop seals that Minato simply hadn't.

"So where does Hana going with Jiraiya-sama come in?"

Lowering her voice, even though she knew they were alone and the room was clean of spying seals, Tsume answered, "The clan may be looking for somewhere to move to soon."

"What, leave Konoha?"

"Maybe," Tsume nodded. "Depends on if Tsunade and Jiraiya can get their shit together. I hate to say it, but this place could fall down around our ears any day now. We need her there to pass information back to us and let us know when it's time to hit the road."

Nodding, Kiba asked, "So, what do we do until then? Just wait around here and act like nothing's going on?"

"Pretty much. That, and keep an ear to the ground—feel out some of the other clans." Standing from the breakfast table, Tsume took up her plate and empty coffee mug and dumped them into the sink. "Well, come on. You likely won't have team practice or missions for a while and I need someone to fill the vacancy Hana left at the clinic."

"What?" Kiba jerked, the thought of having to deal with sick animals all day was not exactly appealing. Sure, he'd done it before and had tended to Akamaru when he was injured, but this sounded like a long-term reassignment. He had to find some way of getting out of it, otherwise he'd be stuck filling Hana's position indefinitely. "I kind of had plans to work with Akamaru on some new techniques," he tried.

"Bullshit," Tsume snorted. "Now, come on or I'll have you scraping shit out of the pens by hand for the rest of the day."

Resigned to his fate, Kiba put his own dishes away and followed. After all, arguing with his mother would get him exactly what she'd threatened and worse. "Today is going to suck."

* * *

The sun had turned the sky hues of orange and pink when Team Hokage dropped from the treetops a couple of kilometers outside of a small town known locally for its hot springs—one of many such towns scattered across Fire Country. "We're stopping there for the night," Tsunade announced, pointing towards the town visible in the distance, set in a valley between two small mountains—which were part of a chain of small mountains running across the eastern part of Fire Country and up into the neighboring land to the north until terminating at the sea between there and Lightning Country.

Glancing between Tsunade and the town, Shizune quickly produced a map of Fire Country and studied it a moment before letting out a sigh of relief. Beside her, Hinata hummed in question and Shizune tilted the map towards the younger girl. After studying it a moment, Hinata giggled. "I see," she managed to get out, around her small giggle fit.

"What?" Naruto asked, looking over at the map. After a moment, recognition dawned on the blond and he grinned. The map in question was a standard ninja-issue map, though this one had obviously been well used and was marked somewhat differently from other maps the blond had seen. What he found amusing though was that every town in Fire Country with so much as a pachinko parlor was marked. Several of them (the majority of them, actually) were marked further, with signs warning the reader to stay out of those towns. And beside those towns was a number, sometimes several digits long, that Naruto could only interpret as Tsunade's gambling debt in that town.

"Put that damn thing away," Tsunade grumbled. After a moment, she said, "I was thinking we could spend the night at one of the hot-spring inns."

Spotting the obvious distraction for what it was, Shizune smiled and rolled her map up before replacing it in her pack. "That would be nice," she agreed.

"A hot spring and some sake sound nice right about now," Anko agreed, drawing nods and murmurs of agreement from most of the others.

Casting a side-long glance at Hinata and seeing the small grin spread across her face, Temari roller her eyes. "What's got you so chipper?" she asked, though she had a pretty good idea as to exactly what that was. In all likelihood, the ex-Hyuuga would be using the night out as an excuse to finally make her move on Naruto.

The question drew the attention of the females of the group, causing Hinata's grin to spread just a little before she quickly hid it and adopted an innocent look. Tsunade snorted. "Ok, spill it. You look entirely too smug. What have you done?"

"Nothing," the girl answered, pulling Naruto closer to her side. The unspoken 'yet' was obvious to everyone there, save for the seemingly-oblivious boy at her side.

Glancing between the pair, Tsunade hummed in thought before she smirked. "You two have been spending an awful lot of time together lately, haven't you?" Seeing an annoyed look cross both teens' faces, Tsunade continued. "And Naruto's been showing marked improvement in his chakra control exercises the past few weeks..."

Hearing the Sannin's unasked question, Hinata relaxed somewhat, seeing that the woman had gone off on a tangent away from anything that would draw attention—Anko's in particular—towards the sleeping arrangements. The special-jonin in question had been particularly irritating since the group had returned to Otafuku Gai. Hinata wouldn't mind sharing, if not for the fact that the grabby kunoichi had a bad habit of interrupting her any time she worked up the nerve to try to do anything more with Naruto than they had already. Pulling her mind away from the special-jonin in question, lest her frustration on that front show and give the woman the satisfaction of seeing her effort paying off—or worse, encourage her—Hinata decided to force the Sannin to ask what it was she really wanted to ask. "Where are you going with this?"

Eye twitching at having her fun with implications cut off, Tsunade huffed in mock annoyance before pointing out, "I'm a Sannin you know. You don't get a special title for being stupid." Sending a smirk at Naruto, she couldn't resist adding, "Well, unless you're blond and a loudmouth..."

Shooting the eldest blonde a look of annoyance, Naruto deadpanned, "Sounds like someone I know."

"What was that, you brat?" Tsunade grumbled, grinding her fist into the top of the boy's head until he ducked down and moved to put Hinata between himself and Tsunade, upper set of ears laid back and tail twitching in annoyance.

Seeing her mentor looked in the mood to continue harassing the boy, Shizune decided a shove back on course was in order. "You were saying, Tsunade-shishou?"

Rolling her eyes, Tsunade continued. "I know you've been up late most nights playing with chakra. What have you been doing?"

"Well, as you know, some part of Kyuubi's chakra broke off from Naruto when we recovered him," Hinata started, drawing nods from most of those present. Yuugao looked concerned, but quickly hid it. Temari simply motioned for Hinata to continue. "Whatever Akatsuki did, they damaged the seal. Parts of it are missing and, until recently, it had been leaking."

"Leaking?" Anko asked, raising an eyebrow. "And what parts are missing?"

Hinata shrugged. "You know more about sealing that I do. But I'd say about a third or so is just gone. And yes, it was leaking a large amount of Kyuubi's chakra into Naruto-kun's chakra coils. Or it was, until I plugged the leak."

"How?" Shizune asked, then made an 'ahh' sound a moment later as the obvious answer came to mind.

"Jyuuken," the younger girl smiled. "But it's pretty much stopped for the last week or so."

"You're going to have to go into a bit more detail than that," Tsunade pointed out, though she was clearly intrigued. And somewhat upset that she hadn't been informed of this sooner.

Nodding, Hinata attempted to relay what she'd learned studying Naruto's seal. "Buried inside the normal pattern of the seal are nine points which, I'm guessing, are representative of Kyuubi's power—the tails, specifically. Four of the points are equal parts blue and red, and I think the others are supposed to be too—or most of them, anyway. When I first noticed it, four were fully red and bleeding the fox's chakra out into Naruto's own. The ninth was violet and also leaking, but not as much as the others. I've closed off the four that were red and they've gone back to looking like the other four, equal parts blue and red. The last one is still violet and starts leaking chakra again if I don't reapply jyuuken, so I think it's supposed to do that anyway."

"A constant supply of chakra from the fox, built into the seal?" Yuugao asked, drawing a speculative look from Tsunade. "It would make sense that Yondaime would want that available to him."

"It wasn't like that before," Hinata pointed out. Seeing looks urging her to continue, she said, "The chakra around the seal is visibly a different color to my byakugan, whereas before, it was just all blue."

"Could be a timer or something?" Anko shrugged. "We wouldn't know without looking over the original seal." So saying, she shot Tsunade a questioning look. "It _is_ in the scroll, isn't it?"

The Sannin in question nodded. "It is, but knowing Minato, he probably kept half of it in his head. What we have is likely just the base seal for holding the fox in and the jutsu for summoning a shinigami. There's no telling what he actually did. Hell, if I remember correctly, Hiraishin was created on a spur of the moment."

"So, in other words, we don't know what the hell's going on with my seal and likely won't until either Ero-sennin can look at it or the fox decides to wake up from its nap," Naruto surmised.

"That's not true," Haku pointed out, drawing the others' attention as the ninja in question had been silent on the matter until then. "We know that it's still functioning and that it's supplying you with a steady flow of chakra which will cut the time it takes to replenish what you've used and will likely further speed your healing."

Naruto nodded. As he opened his mouth to say something, the blond disappeared in a cloud of smoke and chakra. Hinata blinked before calling out, "Naruto?"

From the trees around them, a Naruto clone dropped down from where a small group of them had been working on something most of the day. "Where'd I go?"

"That wasn't a clone?" Hinata asked, starting to worry.

Naruto shook his head. "No, that was me. The real me, that is. Hang on, I'll check." So saying, the blond dispersed.

"It's always something," Anko murmured, drawing several annoyed glares from the other ninja. "What? It's true! He's a trouble magnet!"

Tenten rolled her eyes before countering, "Pot, kettle, black."

And elsewhere, Naruto looked around before pointing at a grinning old man and yelling, "You!"

"Me," Jiraiya smirked.

"What the hell did you do, you old pervert! I was in the middle of something, damn it!" the boy protested, loudly, drawing snickers from Ayame, Hana, and an old toad at Jiraiya's feet. Kurenai kept quiet, but wasn't fighting the smile tugging at her lips.

"Well, I felt it was time we talked," Jiraiya explained before the impulse to tease won and he asked, "But first... exactly what were you in the middle of?"

Seeing the innuendo for what it was and sidestepping it, Naruto asked, "How'd you get me here?"

It was the toad at Jiraiya's feet that answered, an old and wrinkled thing that was puffing away at a long pipe. "The contract goes both ways, sonny."

Naruto blinked. And then blinked again as the implications dawned. "You summoned me?" he asked, to be sure. Seeing the toad nod, he decided to clarify. "Because I signed the contract?" Another nod. "Shit, let me see that thing!"

The elder toad blinked. "I don't have it."

"Then summon the guy who does!"

Picking up on the boy's tone, Jiraiya asked, "What?"

"You can't?" the toad asked, exhaling a small cloud of smoke and frowning up at the blond as he jumped and alighted on Jiraiya's shoulder. "I thought this one summoned Bunta," he tossed out to Jiraiya.

"He did, and it's a long story," Jiraiya murmured, gesturing towards the blond—specifically the red ears and tail prominently visible and flicking in agitation.

"Summon the goddamn contract toad," Naruto growled at the Sannin, who rolled his eyes before complying. All but snatching the contract away from the amphibian, Naruto quickly read over it. "Fuck." A moment later, the boy's head jerked up from the contract, turning towards the east. "I've got to get back."

"Nearly everyone there has signed the contract, brat," Jiraiya pointed out. "They can just summon a toad and the toad can summon you."

Naruto shot a look at the Sannin before handing the scroll back to the toad, who then disappeared. "That's if they think of it, or even know it can be done. To hell with that, I'm going now." So saying, the blond brought his hands up into the familiar last seal for Kage Bunshin. Two clones _poof!_ed into being before one of them dispelled.

And across Fire Country, another Naruto clone beside Hinata nodded. "That jackass," he rolled his eyes before pulling out a pen.

"What's going on?" Anko asked, watching as the blond added a few lines to a seal that had already been partially drawn on the underside of his arm.

Looking up, the clone saw he had the attention of the group as a whole. "Ero-Sannin summoned me somewhere. Looked like it was close to Wind Country."

"So, what are you doing?" Yuugao asked, studying the seals more closely. "Those look like—"

Looking up from where he'd just finished connecting a few of the seals together, Naruto sent the ANBU kunoichi a foxy grin. "Summoning myself back," he answered, then applied chakra to the seal. A moment later, a second Naruto appeared next to the blond.

"Hey, it worked," the new Naruto grinned as the clone dispersed. Taking out his pen, he quickly duplicated what the clone had done to the seal. Above them, the group of clones dispersed, to be replaced a moment later as Naruto produced a fresh group with the updated seals.

"So, is this what you were working on before we left?" Tenten asked, drawing a grin from the boy.

"Something like that. What I did now is just a summoning seal. Well, actually, I added another seal to the kage bunshin summoning seal that bypasses the cloning part of the seal. So instead of summoning clones, it summons the person. I just made it summon myself instead of one of you."

"That could be—" Tsunade started, her tone warning, but Naruto cut her off.

"Only I can use it. Has to be my chakra doing the summoning."

"Very creative, Naruto-kun," Shizune smiled. "How did you limit it to only your chakra signature?"

"I played with the medical detection thingie seal," Naruto answered, waving the question off. "That isn't what I was working on, though," Naruto turned back to Tenten. "I made.. sort of a target seal, I guess," here the blond shrugged. "Basically, I can send us wherever I leave one. I already had a clone test the one I left in Otafuku Gai and it works."

_That_ left the group speechless. That is, until Tsunade's mind finally caught up and she asked, "Wait, Jiraiya summoned you _where_?"

Naruto shrugged. "Around Wind Country. It was dry plains for the most part."

"That _idiot_! I told him to wait," the Sannin growled.

Seeing the woman's irritation and wanting to get back at the pervert for interrupting, Naruto shot her an mischievous grin. "You could tell him yourself..." he offered. Seeing Tsunade light up at the idea, the boy created and dispersed a clone.

And across Fire Country, Jiraiya blinked as one Naruto disappeared less than a minute after dispersing a clone. "Did you just...?"

The clone grinned and nodded, rolling up his sleeve for the Sannin to see. "Summoned myself back," he explained, pointing at the seals. "This one isn't finished though, since I finished it on the other side there and I was made before then... But still, same basic stuff."

"Brat," Jiraiya started, shaking his head. "Naruto, this is _really_ good."

On his other side, Kurenai took a long look at the seals laid out on the boy's arm before asking, "Does this summon.. clones?" she asked. Seeing the boy nod, she continued. "How does that work? Normally,  
kage bunshin divides the caster's chakra evenly amongst any clones produced. So one clone halves your chakra, two cut it into thirds, and so on. I know you can create more than that, but my point is, you shouldn't be able to summon clones of someone else without using their chakra."

"I do, just not much." Naruto shrugged. "Enough to make it a clone of that person, and the rest is mine. I _think_ it's less than what's used for a normal bunshin, even—not quite sure since I've never really been able to do the technique... So when the clones pop, whoever they were made from get both their chakra and that bit of mine back, along with the memory of whatever the clone has done." Naruto paused before turning to look over his shoulder to where Ayame had grabbed his swishing tail and Hana looked like she had tried to do the same but Ayame had beaten her to the punch. "Uhh... guys?"

"It's very soft," Ayame murmured. A hand sliding into her field of vision drew her attention to Hana. "Get your own," she protested, turning away from the Inuzuka heiress with prize in hand.

"Oh come on, I just want to touch it," Hana whined.

Kurenai looked between the girls, who looked close to breaking out into a minor fight over the red length of softness to the boy attached to it, who sighed in resignation and put on the long-suffering look of one used to this sort of treatment. "Get this a lot?" she asked.

"From pretty much anything female," the boy lamented in agreement. "I don't mind it so much from Hinata and the others, but it gets kind of weird when random girls on the street just run up and either ask to pet me... or don't bother asking. Weirdest thing is, Hinata doesn't seem to mind letting them get it out of their system." After a moment, he added, "I'm surprised you're not," only to trail off as one of Kurenai's hands found its way to his ears. "Never mind."

Jiraiya looked on with a sense of awe, jealousy, and pride. Naruto had, with absolutely no effort whatsoever, managed to attract and hold the attention of all three of the kunoichi traveling with him in a way that the Sannin simply couldn't. "Damn," he murmured. Minato had always been popular with the ladies, and Jiraiya hadn't failed to notice the looks thrown Naruto's way by the girls of various villages outside of Konoha, even if Naruto had. But now, it looked like they just couldn't help themselves. If only the blond would figure out exactly what sort of sway he held over the fairer sex and exactly how to take advantage of it... And given a few years to grow a bit taller and put on some muscle, it would probably be panties along with those looks being thrown his way. "You are one lucky brat."

Rolling his eyes, Naruto perked up and sent a grin Jiraiya's way as a clone most of the way across the country dispersed. "Oh, you're in for it now."

"Huh?" Jiraiya managed to get out, just before a cloud of smoke and chakra obscured his vision. A moment later, it cleared to reveal Tsunade's team standing between Naruto and the Toad Sannin. The Godaime Hokage herself took one look at Jiraiya before stepping forward, winding back, and releasing a punch that sent Jiraiya flailing ass-over-teakettle into the dirt and dispersed Tsunade's clone.

Across Fire Country, Tsunade's smirk was vicious as she chuckled. "That was _completely_ worth it. Now, summon me again."

Jiraiya stood as Tsunade reappeared, quickly taking several steps back. When it looked as though she wasn't going to move, he rubbed his sore jaw before asking, "Not going to attack me this time?"

Tsunade shook her head. "While I'm sure Naruto could keep summoning us for most of the night, I'd rather beat on you in person. Now, let's talk."

Seeing the blatant opening to twist the woman's words into something perverted, the Toad Sannin started to do exactly that only to be cut off by a commotion amongst the group. Upon the group of clones' arrival, the resident Inuzuka had taken one good sniff of the group as a whole before breaking out into giggles. Like the majority of those born into her clan, her senses of smell, taste, and hearing were all particularly sharp and, having been around sexually active kunoichi for several years, she could smell the frustration rolling off some of them in waves—especially from Anko, Hinata, and surprisingly Shizune. She had been largely ignored, at least until she finally managed to latch onto the Naruto clone's tail as Ayame had dropped it on the group's arrival and began rubbing her face into its soft red fur, drawing a look of irritation from Hinata—who, as Naruto had pointed out and the others had long since noted, had never really minded such things before. A moment later, a lavender-haired blur knocked the Inuzuka heiress to the ground as Hinata launched herself at the older kunoichi, the pair rolling around on the ground for a moment before coming to a stop—Hinata perched firmly on the older girl's back, several sharp little teeth digging into the back of the Inuzuka girl's neck and a quiet growl rumbling low in her throat. Below her, Hana had gone completely limp. The group was dead silent, save for a few chuckles from Anko. "Alright, will you let me up now?" the older girl asked quietly after several moments, her tone meek. The former Hyuuga released her and stood, quickly attaching herself to Naruto's side and turning her attention back to Tsunade and Jiraiya as though nothing had happened. Just to rub it in, Ayame had again taken hold of the clone's tail and Hinata didn't seem to mind at all.

"Looks like she sorted you out," Anko chortled, helping Hana back to her feet.

The Inuzuka heiress blushed, shooting the special jonin a glare. "You shut up," she growled, adding quietly, "This is so embarrassing."

Leaning in towards the shorter girl, Yuugao sniffed before a grin spread across her face. "No, what should be embarrassing is that you _liked_ it."

Sending the older kunoichi a glare, Hana hissed, "_Shut up!_" before turning away and studiously ignoring the quiet and not-so-quiet laughter coming from those around her, allowing herself to be lead away a moment later as Kurenai joined them to catch up on things, but only after motioning for Hinata to join them which the younger kunoichi did by way of another clone.

Seeing one of Hinata going off with her sensei and some of the others, Naruto hummed in question to the girl at his side. Shaking her head, the foxy girl sent the boy a smile before answering, "Girl talk."

Shizune rolled her eyes, seeing that things had gone well off topic. "Right, now that that's settled," she lead, nudging Tsunade with an elbow.

The Slug Sannin allowed herself one last chuckle before turning her full attention back to Jiraiya. "I thought I told you to wait."

"What just happened?" Naruto asked, intentionally ignoring the Sannin for Hinata.

Beside him, the girl sent him another small smile before shrugging. "I'll explain later. Suffice it to say, we settled a disagreement before it could start." After all, she couldn't possibly say _'I was marking my territory,'_ with a straight face.

"I would have preferred to wait a while," Tsunade argued, shooting her younger two apprentices a glare to quiet them before continuing. "Konoha's going to be pissed and I wouldn't be surprised if some of them decided they want revenge against us or Naruto."

Jiraiya shrugged. "It's not like there's going to be any big change from the way things were before. At worst, those idiots will make a run to Otafuku Gai and look for Naruto there, and when they don't find him, they'll burn the place down."

"Oi! I liked that place!" Naruto complained, drawing eye-rolls from both Sannin.

"Shut up, brat," both Tsunade and Jiraiya grumbled before Tsunade countered, "And what if they don't stop there?"

Again, Jiraiya shrugged. "I made off with the rest of the treasury. I really doubt they've got resources to spare looking for us. Sure, we might get a few random attacks from disgruntled Konoha ninja on other missions, but they aren't going to be actively hunting us for some time. And by the time they do, we'll be able to deal with most anything they send at us."

Beside Tsunade, Shizune blinked at that before holding out her hand. At Jiraiya's questioning look, she elaborated. "The scroll with the treasury fund. Hand it over."

Looking between Tsunade and Shizune, Jiraiya snorted before handing the kunoichi the scroll holding all of the other scrolls, which held the contents of the treasury, various libraries, and merchants' inventory. "Just make sure I get that back."

"Naruto-kun?" Shizune asked, drawing the blond's attention. "Can you send a clone to Otafuku Gai, withdraw our funds there, seal it and get it back to us?"

The boy in question nodded. "Sure, shouldn't be a problem," he agreed, creating and dispersing another clone to pass along the message.

"What are you thinking, Shizune?" Jiraiya asked, getting a murmur of agreement from Tsunade.

"Well, if it isn't safe for us in Otafuku Gai any longer, then it certainly isn't safe for our funds to remain there. While they're good for generating profit on interest, banks are generally run by civilians. And the first thing any competent ninja would do knowing they've been stolen from, is find out who stole from them and where they're keeping the money, and then steal it back." Humming in thought, Shizune added, "Naruto-kun, can you make a clone of me once one of you gets there? There are a few other things we might as well do since we won't be going back, and it'd be best to get them all done at once."

Nodding in agreement to Shizune's plan and waving her off to take inventory of what Jiraiya had pilfered and add the count to the things Tsunade herself had taken, she asked, "What do you have planned in Suna?"

"Oh, a little of this and a little of that," Jiraiya leered, earning a slap to the back of the head courtesy of his predecessor in office. "Ow! Ok, fine. I'm going to see about negotiating some kind of deal with that Gaara kid."

Tsunade hummed for a moment before nodding. "I'll go along with it, so long as we're there when you do."

As Tsunade and Jiraiya got down the business, Jiraiya made a clone, who motioned Naruto to follow him off to one side of the camp and away from the others. When he noticed Hinata tagging along, they traded a look for a moment before the Sannin shrugged and motioned for them to sit before taking a seat himself. "Ok, there's no easy way to say this so I'm not going to beat around the bush." Seeing he had their full attention, Jiraiya continued. "Naruto, your father was Yondaime Hokage." When the boy opened his mouth to say something, Jiraiya held up a hand to silence him. "Let me finish. You probably know this, but Minato wanted you to be seen as a hero. When your mom died too, Sarutobi was left to pick up the pieces. I'm not saying he didn't make mistakes, because he did, but he tried his best to do right by you—which is a lot more than I did. He tried to honor your dad's wishes, but the villagers weren't having it. And since both your parents were dead and the villagers looked ready to riot, he decided to keep your parentage under wraps, probably until you were a chuunin or jonin and he thought you could take care of yourself and deal with anyone Iwa, Kumo, or one of the other villages sent—and you know they would, eventually. Then he made that law, outlawing people from telling you about Kyuubi and swore those of us who knew or suspected—me and Kakashi, mostly—to secrecy about your dad. Which kind of sucked, seeing as Minato made me your godfather and either myself or Kakashi were supposed to look after you, if one or the other couldn't. I could have gone against it and stuck around anyway, but I didn't. As for Kakashi... I don't know what excuse he has for not taking a more active role in looking after you, though I imagine Sandaime had a hand in it. Either way, that's between you and him." Jiraiya sighed before scrubbing a hand through his shaggy hair and finishing, "Look, what I'm trying to say is I did wrong by you and I'm sorry, and I want to try to make up for it if you'll let me. "

For what felt like hours to the Sannin and those eavesdropping—and nearly everyone there _was_ eavesdropping, though they were at least allowing them the illusion of privacy—Naruto simply sat there, his gaze on the ground at Jiraiya's feet. Emotions crossed the boy's face faster than most of those watching could follow before finally settling when the warm hand that had been in his the whole time tightened its grip slightly. Shooting a thankful smile at Hinata, Naruto turned back to Jiraiya. "What was he like?"

* * *

Isaribi yawned as she emptied the dust pan in her hand into the trash bin. Throwing last appraising look out over the store front, she nodded before going to put the broom and dust pan away for the night. While the store wouldn't normally close until well into the morning hours, the fish-girl tended to go home around dark on most nights, where—if the others were on the road—she would make herself a simple meal and study or read for a few more hours before going to bed and repeating the process the next morning. Tonight, though, Dane had elected to close shop early and spend the night working on a new project that had caught his interest. The bell over the door drew the girl's attention and she made her way back up to the front counter. "Can I help you?" she asked, shooting a glance at the front door. _'I know I locked that,'_ she mused. Catching sight of the 'Open' sign clearly facing her position, meaning it would show 'Closed' to passers-by, confirmed her suspicions. If it hadn't though, the group of four who were obviously ninja—three chuunin, if their vests were anything to go by, and one who was probably a jonin as he looked far older than the rest—would have.

Before the girl could answer one way or another, the door to the back room opened and Dane made his way to the front of the store. Shooting a glance between the door, the group, and his young helper, the retired ninja turned his focus on the group. He did not fail to notice that each of the ninja present wore Konoha headbands. "We're closed for the night, fellas. There's a nice inn a few streets over that'll put you up for the night for cheap, if you want to come back in the morning."

Ignoring the two at the counter for a moment, the eldest of the group turned to what looked to be the youngest—a girl with shaggy red hair and her headband pulled down over her eyes. "Here?" Getting a nod in answer—though it was somewhat hard to discern between the girl's energetic bouncing on the balls of her feet—he turned his attention towards Dane. "We're looking for a blond kid, probably got some scars on his face that look like whisker marks or something, and wears a lot of orange."

Dane was impressed when Isaribi didn't visibly react at the mention of Naruto. Rubbing the back of his head and pretending to think to buy some time, the elder ninja carefully toed off his right sandal and ran his big toe over a small razor set in the sole of his left sandal. Smearing blood over several distinctive indentations in the wood under his foot, Dane hummed a moment before nodding. "Yeah, he and a group have been coming in pretty regular lately. Goes through clothes like nobody's business," here, he grinned before shrugging. "Well, nobody's but mine anyway."

"When's the last time they were here?" the elder ninja of the Konoha group asked, feeling that he was being distracted from something but unable to put his finger on what exactly. Whatever it was, it had his gut instinct screaming that something wasn't right. Maybe it had something to do with the guy's accent, or the fact that he could swear he had seen him somewhere before.

"Eh? Early this morning. They came in to buy some training gear."

Unable to hold back any longer, Isaribi asked, "What do you want with them?"

"Village business, keep your nose out of it," one of the younger boys—his hair a dark brown and skin tan from being on the road—answered, his tone setting off warning bells for Dane.

Sighing, a boy that looked like a slightly older version of the one who had spoken rudely sent the pair behind the counter a short bow. "Please forgive my brother his rudeness. He is young and impetuous."

"You're only a year older," the rude one grumbled quietly, only to be silenced by a swat from what seemed to be their jonin-sensei.

"Knock it off," the jonin rolled his eyes before turning his attention back full to Dane. "Know where we can find them?"

"Not a clue," Dane shrugged. Beside him, Isaribi fidgeted.

Shrugging, the jonin motioned for his team to follow before pausing and shooting Dane a contemplative look. "Do I know you from somewhere?"

The retired ninja grinned. "I'm pretty sure I've never seen you in here before."

"Your face just looks really familiar," he murmured, drawing a shrug from the store owner.

"He's lying," the redhead sing-songed, her head cocked in Dane's general direction and a wide smile crossing her face.

Every eye in the room turned to the red-haired girl who had, until then, remained—miraculously, thought her teammates—silent. Now sure of his suspicions, the jonin asked, "You fought in the war, didn't you?" He had no real grudge over the last war, but his curiosity just wouldn't leave it alone.

"I really wish you hadn't said that," Dane sighed. A moment later, the redhead blurred towards the counter, one hand going to the weapon at her waist as Dane's chakra flared and the group of four vanished in a cloud of smoke and chakra. "Time to go!" he shouted, toeing on his sandal and taking hold of Isaribi before running for the front door.

"What's going on, where are we going?"

Throwing open the door, Dane set the girl down long enough to kick over the dog statue in front of the store and place his foot on the section of cement it had covered before slapping a panel on the side of the door and channeling chakra into both places. Slipping his foot back into his sandal from where he had kicked it off for direct contact with the seal, the retired ninja picked up the fish girl and slung her onto his back before he broke into a dead sprint onto the roofs and out of town. "We're getting the hell out of town," he answered.

The building behind them going up in flames drew Isaribi's attention long enough to ask, "What the hell?"

"Destruction seals. No evidence and no material for them to collect," Dane explained. "Damn shame losing the place though. I kind of liked it here."

"Why am I coming with you? And who were they?" the girl asked as Dane cleared the last of the buildings and took to the ground. The thought crossed his mind that she was taking this amazingly calmly, considering they had just been attacked and were likely to be again if they did not make haste. Though she didn't know it, the retired ninja was actively using his chakra to try and scatter his scent and any footprints as much as possible.

"Why do you think?" The retired ninja rolled his eyes before answering. "Because you were there. And they're hunter-nin. Well, at least two of them."

"What? How do you know all of this?"

"The girl?" Dane lead, and on getting a nod, he continued. "She's a dog, essentially. She probably lost her eye-sight early on in her ninja career. Something like that happens to normal people, their other senses make up for the loss. Ninja get the same effect, only multiplied. She was likely that jonin's apprentice. Money says even if she wasn't before, she's a chakra sensor now. And she obviously tracked Tsunade's group there by smell. So, we're going to do our best to lose them."

After a moment of holding on for the ride in silence, the girl pointed out, "You're leaving something out."

Dane grinned. "And you'd have made a good ninja. You've got the intuition for it, at least."

Seeing that she wasn't going to get any answers as to exactly how the ninja-turned-tailor could spot hunter-nin, or why the jonin from Konoha seemed to recognize him from 'the war,' she tried a different track. "Where'd they go, when she attacked?"

"Huh?" the ninja asked, before nodding. "Oh, that. More seals. Sent them to the bottom of a lake a few miles south of town. It likely won't kill them, but it'll be fair warning not to follow if they know what's good for them." Naruto was neither the first nor the last ninja to have dabbled with summoning seals, after all. He just happened to be something of a prodigy. Many ninja learned at least one aspect of fuuinjutsu at some point in their careers—most just never took it further than summoning, storage, or explosives, simply because they wanted to spend more time on flashier techniques or missions. The technique Dane had used involved printing a general summoning seal on an object—in this case, a rock—along with a remote trigger seal. The rock had been tossed to the bottom of the lake in question and the actual seal to trigger it was laid out several times over across Dane's home and business and were crafted in such a way as to target any living organism standing a certain distance away from the activated seal, out to the walls of the building—thus neither Isaribi, who had been within arms' length, nor any civilians outside or in neighboring buildings had been summoned while the intruding ninja had.

"Where are we going?"

The retired ninja shrugged. "North. If we stick to the east coast, we can make our way through Lightning without drawing too much attention. From there, it's on to the Land of Snow. Supposedly, there's a ninja village up there and Tsunade's group is friendly with the Daimyo. With any luck, I can set up shop and make a bit of cash. Now, settle in and be quiet for a few hours." When the girl nodded, Dane shifted his focus to planning out their route and stops along the way, his body running pretty much on auto-pilot as the retired ninja began mentally dusting off old skills he thought he had put away for good after the last war. The first stop was going to be to pick up provisions—food, a couple of tents, sleeping bags, and things to make toys to dissuade others from bothering them if it came to that. After that, he would try to hit a few towns between Otafuku Gai and the Lightning/Snow border to pick up supplies enough to replace his lost stock. Tomorrow morning though, he would be sending word by way of dog to Tsunade's group, letting them know he and the kid had made it out okay but that their Otafuku Gai location had been compromised. He doubted this had been a sanctioned mission on Konoha's part, for the simple fact that they would have sent more than one team of rookies, a hunter-nin, and his apprentice seeing as they had at least one Sannin to deal with along with the others. No, this was likely some sort of retaliatory action. And if so, then they could be dealing with a single team lead by a disgruntled jonin or potentially dozens of teams of like minded ninja—not to mention the civilians sure to follow and far more likely to succumb to mob mentality and start burning things down. Either way, the compound outside of town would either be burned to the ground or turned into a deathtrap—at least, that's what he would have done. _'Well, looks like it may be coming up on time to come out of retirement,'_ he mused, wondering absently if there was still an entry in Konoha's bingo book bearing his face.

And south of Otafuku Gai, four heads broke the surface of a lake gasping for air. It was the redhead who broke the relative silence, drawing the attention of her teammates. "Can we go after them? Please?" she begged, drawing out the 'please' into a long whine.

The jonin chuckled. "You sound eager." On getting an enthusiastic nod in response, he shook his head. "No, we're here for the Kyuubi-brat. Besides, I remember where I know that guy from now."

Seeing that their leader didn't seem to be going to elaborate as he broke into a pull for shore, the polite brother asked for clarification. "Where, sensei?"

"Eh, it was before your time. Back during the second war, there was a bounty for a live capture in the bingo book. Forget the guy's name, but he was apparently one of Iwa's. Not sure on the details, but rumor has it his master passed on some secret technique for making ninja armor that could shrug off most anything you threw at it. Needless to say, the bounty was pretty high."

"It sounds like this stuff could have won the war," the rude brother pointed out. "So why aren't we going after him?"

Their sensei rolled his eyes before answering, "Because trap experts are a son-of-a-bitch to take down. They always find the deepest hole they can to crawl down into and it's a pain in the ass digging them back out again if you want them alive—usually turns into a complete cluster-fuck. It's just not worth it. For future reference, just because a ninja doesn't have an S-ranked entry or is low-ranked doesn't mean he isn't dangerous. Take the Kyuubi-brat, for instance. The thing is crafty and I'm realistic enough to admit it's got more chakra than most ninja in the village—more if it gets serious. And sometimes... well, enough power can trump skill. The problem we've got now is that it's got two of our Hokage convinced it's human, and it will do its damnedest to gain as much skill from them as it can before it kills them. Given power _and_ skill... well, it's best it doesn't get to that point."

"What about what Jiraiya-sama said? What if he really is Yondaime-sama's son?" the polite brother asked, only to duck a swat from the rude brother.

"Idiot. It's obviously not true."

The jonin shook his head. "No, it's probably true—if three of our Hokage sheltered it, then it was likely born Yondaime's son. But as much as I respect and trust Yondaime-sama, there are only two ways the sealing could have turned out: either that no man could create a seal strong enough to hold Kyuubi entirely, even with the aid of a shinigami, or that no human put through what we put that boy through could have possibly remained sane enough to resist the temptation that demon was whispering in his ear."

The rude brother hummed before asking, "So, either it was the fox all along, or—"

"Or, through our own actions, we created what we've feared most since learning the truth," the polite brother finished. "But if that's the case, then _we're_ to blame—"

Their sensei nodded. "Yes, if that's the case then it's our own doing. But it's also our responsibility to take care of our own problems and keep them from spilling out over onto the rest of the world. What happened that night, I wouldn't wish on anyone. And if our leaders can't see that, then it's up to those of us who do see it to do what is right."

It was the redhead who broke the silence the group fell into as they pulled themselves onto the banks of the lake. "Right, wrong, I just want to stick a kunai in something."

The group's sensei chuckled before ruffling the girl's hair fondly. "Don't ever change, kiddo."

And elsewhere still in Otafuku Gai, a Naruto clone looked up from where he was finishing up clearing out their account—another clone in town having dispersed and passed along the memory of Dane's shop going up in flames and sending yet another clone and the paired clone of Shizune after the tailor and his cargo of one fish-girl—while Shizune summoned a dog to track the retired ninja's path, Naruto had created another clone and dispersed to send word along and the pair had given chase. Currently, a clone of Shizune was helping another Naruto seal and send everything they could from their home outside of town while yet another cloned pair of herself and Naruto were taking care of clearing out their bank account. A final set of clones had been sent to give Dane and Isaribi a heads-up, but had apparently gotten there just in time to watch it catch fire.

As the last of their hastily boxed possessions was sealed away and tossed onto a stack of similar sealed scrolls, which were then sent away to the original Naruto's location, Shizune let out a sigh of regret as she took one last look around what had once been their living room. "We'll find somewhere better," Naruto assured her quietly. "Somewhere safe."

"Yeah," the eldest apprentice agreed quietly, taking Naruto's hand as the boy hefted her to her feet and lead her from what had been the only real _home_ the girl had had since leaving Konoha. Since her last living relative and Tsunade's lover had died, home had been by the Sannin's side. For a few short months, though, Shizune felt she had truly known what a home was. And while they would have another in the future, letting go was still difficult. Once outside, the pair turned to regard the place their little group had grown so attached to in so short a time. "One last thing to do."

"I should—" Naruto started, only to be cut off by Shizune shaking her head. They had discussed this and, while both agreed it was necessary, neither of them really wanted to carry through with it.

_'Without everyone here to give it life, it's just another building,'_ Shizune consoled herself, though she knew it would hurt just the same. Channeling chakra, Shizune ran through a set of five seals before bringing her fingers to her mouth and exhaling a stream of fire. The door and surrounding wall immediately caught, followed by the roof as the med-nin angled the stream of her blaze upwards along the roof and outer wall. Dropping the jutsu, she took to the road leading off the property—shooting a backwards glance to make sure Naruto was following. It had been decided that since they were already in town with a group of clones, they would spread out and try to tag a all of the larger towns in the area with Naruto's target seals—including Konoha, if they could sneak back in. With any luck, they would have fast access to every dot on the map in Fire Country within a few weeks, if they could keep a few teams of clones constantly moving—and seeing as it was Naruto providing the chakra for both his own and her clone, they would be able to do that and more.

Pushing the pang of loss out of her mind and focusing on the more immediate future, Shizune found another thought niggling away at her—several, actually, but connecting them... Firstly, Naruto-kun—and thoughts of the blond brought with them a whole other slew of thoughts that had her fighting to keep an excited smile off her face as they, or at least several groups of clones thereof, would be spending the next several weeks alone on the road together, and forcing herself to focus—had created a derivative of the summoning seal that could send objects or people great distances for little chakra in trade. Shizune had tested the seals herself—just to get a feel for how much chakra it would take someone without Naruto's massive reserves, as Naruto didn't even notice the loss—and had found that as with regular summoning, the amount of chakra required was proportional to the mass one was trying to summon, or send in this instance. However, Shizune also noted it took far less even then—which she supposed was because all of the summoning/sending was being done locally, as opposed to summoning beings from whatever plane beings such as Gamabunta and his clan resided on. She was not a seal or summoning expert, however, so that was really just an educated guess.

Secondly, the vast majority of a ninja's time on missions outside of their home village was spent en route, either to or from a mission theater. Sure, ninja could cover a lot of ground in what seemed like no time at all compared to slower methods of travel that either required paved roads or tracks such as the few automobiles and locomotives in existence, or at the very least roads a horse and buggy could travel—especially since ninja typically traveled as the crow flies, that being the most direct route possible. The problem was that it still sometimes took days, weeks even, for ninja to travel from their village of origin to wherever their mission called. All of this was time wasted for the client—time that could mean the life or death of a hostage, ending a minor war before it broke out, or even just that someone went hungry because they were late making a shipment to some remote region of the Elemental Nations with no real means of sustaining themselves. Most clients accepted this loss of time and adjusted their plans accordingly, if they could—which is why most villages did not get certain types of time-critical missions from outside their home nation, when a closer village could get the job done faster. However, Naruto had created a seal that required absolutely no chakra control and that academy students could power, which could cut travel time between towns—between nations—to zero. Sure, time would still need to be allotted for assigning a team, gearing that team, reconnaissance of the target area and mission objective... but this would mean mission times of days, weeks at the _very_ most as opposed to a week at minimum.

Thirdly, Team Hokage—both sets, if Shizune now counted Jiraiya's group as a separate entity—could move freely amongst the Elemental Nations and take missions as they came, or so the theory went. And as they were the only ones who possessed this method of travel, at least for the moment as Shizune had no doubts everyone would be using it as soon as word of the technique got out, they were currently the most versatile group of ninja on the continent—or at least they would be as soon as they managed to expand Naruto's network of seals. What this meant for them was that they could, or would soon be able to, take nearly any time-sensitive mission regardless of rank, complete it, and return before most villages could even field a team to the area in question. And time-sensitive missions paid well almost without exception. Even taking a cut on the pay as they would essentially be contracting their services out to a larger village, the sheer number of missions they could accomplish in the time it would take that same village to complete even one would guarantee they would get first pick for any job that required travel outside of a village's home nation.

And that's when reality set in for Shizune. Neither Tsunade nor Jiraiya would feel like taking a constant stream of high earning missions as they would point out, rightly, that they did not need to. They had enough cash on hand to fund building a ninja village from the ground up, why would they need more at the moment? Sure, they'd take missions on to help train those who needed it, or just for fun, but not for the money. And the others would follow the Sannins' lead on this. Shizune, on the other hand, was of the opinion that even if they were richer than several gods at the moment it wouldn't hurt to have more money coming in. And so, another idea was born. Before learning of Jiraiya's activities, Tsunade's group had been on their way to Hidden Mist by way of Wave, on the request of an acquaintance of Tsunade's. Jiraiya's group, however, had been on their way to Hidden Sand to negotiate an alliance. From what she understood from listening to Haku's debrief upon first joining the team, Wave worshiped Naruto as a minor deity at this point and would probably go along with anything he asked. Wave, under Gato's control, had been part of one of the largest shipping and fishing empires on the eastern seaboard—even if the citizens saw no gains off of that prosperity, it was still there. Suna, from what Shizune understood from attending talks between Tsunade and Gaara in their official positions, had to import much of their foodstuffs—and fish was especially expensive, as it spoiled quickly and was a week's travel for ninja to the nearest town even resembling a port. Fish had to either be packed in ice, which was a commodity in and of itself in most nations, or cleaned and packed in salt—also a fairly expensive commodity—if they were going to be transported any distance. And since Suna was buying it from the same stock being packed across the country by cart, it was already prepared before their ninja got there to seal it, leaving no room for negotiations for unpackaged fish. However, if one cut the distance out of the middle it also did away with the need for many of the related expenses. No travel distance meant no team to retrieve the goods, no ice or salt or otherwise for packing, and no danger of the goods spoiling and a shipment being wasted. Using the seals, they could send shipments back and forth between Suna and Wave and, in the process, earn themselves steady income.

There were problems with this, however. What incentive would there be for Suna to pay them for the use of their seals? Sure, from what she understood, Gaara felt he owed Naruto a great deal, but she doubted that would stop others in Suna—their village council, for instance—from just stealing the seals and using them for their own ends. Not to mention the problems if other ninja villages got their hands on the seals and decided to try fielding armies with them. That thought in mind, Shizune asked, "Naruto-kun?" Seeing she had his attention, she continued. "Can you hide or disguise your seals to keep others from stealing them?"

Naruto hummed in thought before answering. "Not yet, but I'm sure the old letch or Tsunade-baachan knows how. I'll ask when I get a chance. Why, what do you have in mind?"

"Oh, nothing much," Shizune answered, before going on to explain her thoughts, and nearly causing Naruto to stumble once or twice while doing so.

When the eldest apprentice finished, the blond nodded. "So, we're going to take over the shipping industry then?"

Shizune did stumble as she realized she had fallen into what seemed to be a common fallacy amongst ninja: she had been so focused on one aspect of her idea that she had missed the bigger picture. Why stop at linking Suna and Wave? Goods and people were moved across the continent and surrounding island nations on a daily basis. Sea travel, as Shizune could attest, was notoriously slow and yet was the largest and most lucrative of the shipping businesses. Businesses, nations, and various Lords and rulers would pay handsomely to have their goods delivered within the day as opposed to within the weeks or months it took now. And since they would be cutting out the cost of insurance against weather, pirates, and other dangers sea-faring vessels faced, they would be able to offer their services cheaper than any shipping guild or business could possibly hope to. Insurance alone took up nearly forty percent of the cost of shipping goods, after all, regardless of whether it went by land or sea. They didn't know it yet, but with just a few words from a certain blond, Shizune had found a way to cut off the various trading companies at the knees. Her body nearly vibrating with excitement at the possibilities, Shizune cast her thoughts towards finding a way to secure her... that is, _their_ future empire. Casting a sidelong glance at her traveling companion, Shizune nearly choked on a giggle. _'If Hinata-chan thinks she's keeping him all to herself, she is sorely mistaken. After all, what's an empire without an Emperor?'_ Beside her, and elsewhere in the world, every iteration of Naruto felt a chill run down his spine. Casting a quick glance around and not finding himself in any immediate danger, the blond still found himself unable to shake off the feeling that somewhere out there, someone was out to get him.


	26. Several Plans Coming Together

**The Missing Hokage**

**26: Several Plans Coming Together, All At Once**

* * *

Fingers drumming the table hard enough to vibrate a nearby bowl drowned out the sound of utensils scraping against porcelain as the group ate in silence. Looking more closely, those nearby could make out indentations individual fingers had pounded into the hard wood. Add to that, killing intent flooded the room, cycling in intensity every few seconds—and all of it directed at one woman: Mitarashi Anko. The special-jonin in question, however, seemed completely unphased as she calmly ate her rice and washed it down with a sip of green tea. On the inside though, Anko was giggling like a little girl. In the background, the staff of the inn Team Hokage had elected to stay the night in were conspicuously absent, and had been since the pale-eyed demoness had risen from her slumber and joined the group for breakfast with an especially groggy blond at her side.

Hinata was frustrated, annoyed, and quite frankly in the mood to kill the smug kunoichi sitting directly across from her and would, if it weren't for the knowledge that Naruto would be upset if she plastered Anko's smug face against the far wall in a fine red pulp. The cause of her ire could be found in the boy sitting to her right trying to be as unobtrusive as possible while still managing to eat between yawns. Tsunade's group had booked several rooms at a hot spring inn as soon as they'd reached the main town of Wave the previous evening and then proceeded to hit the springs—which were, very inconveniently in Hinata's reasoning, separated by sex. Keeping an ear on activity from Naruto's side of the spring, Hinata made her excuses and left the bath as soon as she heard Naruto finish drying off and leave. Drying herself, she had quickly caught up to her favorite blond and cornered him in their room, making sure to lock the door behind her in the process. Two discarded towels and some embarrassed (on Naruto's part) nakedness later had found her perched atop the foxy blond and all set to finally commit to the deed. And that's when things went south—only not in the way Hinata had intended.

_Two sets of fuzzy ears twitched towards the door as quiet footsteps came to a stop in front of it. Hinata's eyes narrowed in annoyance at the sound of a lock being deftly picked. Leaning up and reaching under Naruto's pillow for a spare set of kunai, and enjoying the way his eyes gravitated towards her breasts in the process, Hinata flung the pair of kunai into the sliding door's track just as it was being slid open, jamming it._

_"Didn't you learn the first time?" she shot towards the door before leaning forward to draw Naruto's attention back towards her._

_A quiet 'pfft!' and a twitch of the whiskers was the only warning either got as the sound of something smacking flesh resounded through the room. "Ow! What the hell?"_

_Reaching down, Hinata found and removed the projectile that had impacted with her soon-to-be lover's thigh. Examining it more closely revealed it to be a dart, of the kind fired from a blowgun. And from the doorway came a confirming snort and a quiet taunt of, "Of course I learned from last time."_

_"Hin.. ata-cha.. n?" Naruto half-mumbled, half-slurred below her, his voice starting to slur and his eyes mostly closed. "I feel kinda... funny," the boy got out before his eyes closed and his body went slack. A small trail of drool escaped the corner of the blond's mouth even as Hinata felt his 'attention' wane against her backside._

_Eyes shooting between the dart and her blond was-to-have-been lover, Hinata sat frozen for several moments as, out in the hall, Anko's sniggering grew louder. "You..." Flinging the dart away, the ex-Hyuuga unconsciously flooded the inn with killing intent, which only made Anko laugh harder. "You... _cockblock_!" Anko was long gone by the time Hinata ripped the door from its track. The former Hyuuga went back to bed frustrated, vowing revenge against the elder kunoichi if it were the last thing she did._

To make matters worse, Hinata had woken up to find that she had started her monthly—cramps feeling as though someone had her internals in a vice. Thankfully, they had been traveling together long enough that Naruto had long since learned to expect this sort of thing and wasn't really fazed at the sight. Glancing up at the entirely-too-smug looking woman across from her, Hinata smirked. There was good news, after all. The group had been together long enough for their cycles—or at least Hinata, Shizune, Anko, and Tsunade (if she still had them, and Hinata was unsure)—to sync up, with Tenten not far behind. Hinata knew hers would kick off the others, gaining her at least that small victory. And on the wobbly-side of things, her own cycle would be completely finished by this afternoon at the latest, while the others would be ongoing. Later in the day, Tsunade would take the time to pull her aside for another checkup, to see if there were any more surprises in store as, since receiving her fuzzy accouterments, Hinata's monthly cycles had gradually decreased in duration, while increasing in pain during the event—to the point Tsunade had to deaden the area with medical jutsu. The elder med-nin postulated that eventually, she would stabilize and the duration would get down to somewhere around a few hours for her body to mense and regenerate. In the meantime, she became something of a study project for those in the group doing medical training. This had _not_gone over well the first time, even if Hinata understood the need for it. She and Naruto were both something new, after all—just different enough that Tsunade only barely had any clue what their physiology was likely to do from one moment to the next.

"You've only delayed the inevitable," Hinata finally spoke, breaking the silence and causing Naruto beside her to jerk at both the surprise and sub-zero tone of voice.

Finally allowing her grin to show, Anko nodded in agreement. "But delayed it I have."

_Quietly_ putting down his utensils, Naruto carefully stood and excused himself in an effort to clear the blast radius. Having been on the road with this group for the past several months, he knew what this phase of the moon meant for him where the females were concerned—that, and his newly enhanced sense of smell gave him warning well in advance, which only made him dread it that much more. Unfortunately, he could say he completely understood. After all, he'd had a stray _female_ clone running around for well over a month who had had the misfortune of somehow _not_dispersing during her own monthly. The memory of it would haunt him for years to come. A voice from the table halted his retreat. "Naruto-kun?"

"Uh.. yeah?" he asked nervously, cursing the fact that he had been noticed.

"Sit down. I'm not going to bite your head off," Hinata sighed, rolling her eyes in exasperation. _'Men,'_ she mused, unknowingly echoed universally by every female at the table.

* * *

The Land of Snow, as the name would imply, was cold. Bitterly so, at the pace Naruto—or at least a clone thereof—forced himself to keep. Despite wearing gear crafted specifically for cold temperatures, the blond had to frequently stop and summon another clone of the original due to frostbite—fast travel via bastardized shunshin had its drawbacks apparently, and one of those was exposure to the elements. Precipitate such as rain, sleet, or snow mostly flowed around the technique, but it could do nothing for wind, temperature, and humidity. The thought had crossed his mind that he would likely have the same problem spreading groups of clones into Wind Country and spread across the collective conscious that was Naruto in his various cloned incarnations. There were at least a dozen of the blond currently working on a way to beat the problem at hand, but for the moment he was stuck with it. With another summon-and-switch, a blue-faced and shaking blond dispelled and his replacement took off. Clones sent up trees and then tossed for height by more clones had spotted the temperate zone that made up Yukie's Land of Spring as a patch of vibrant green on the horizon.

Having no idea where to look for the one-time runaway princess once he actually got there, the blond settled on coming to a stop at the most memorable landmark he'd spotted during their last trip through the area. After taking a moment to catch his breath and regain a little of the warmth lost in this last leg of his mad sprint up through Lightning and into Snow, Naruto opened a vial of blood from the original Naruto and summoned the rest of the small group that had decided to set up camp and wait until a clone got into position to perform the technique, to spare the rest having to deal with traveling through the harsh climate. As the smoke of the summoning cleared, the blond grinned and decided the awestruck look on Isaribi's face as she took in their surroundings for the first time was worth the frostbite.

"This is what I missed?" the girl managed to get out, only after several minutes of taking in the contrast in scenery. The group of four stood on the grassy shore of a crystal clear lake, surrounded by the chakra-powered mirrors the late Daimyo of Snow had constructed just before his death—the heart of paradise in the middle of an otherwise whited-out winter wonderland.

It was Shizune who brought the group out of their quiet appreciation of the scenery. "Come on, we have to find Koyuki-hime. Naruto-kun, would you mind making another pair of the two of us, to send into town with the others?"

"Eh, two sets?"

Shizune's smile was mischievous as she answered, "We have much to do and I want to surprise Tsunade-sama. Oh, and throw in a trio of Hinata-chan—I could use her help with a few things, and I'm sure she would love to see Spring again." What she left unsaid was that she knew for a fact that Hinata would appreciate a break from the others and some relative alone-time with Naruto, well away from Anko and the woman's efforts to make a nuisance of herself, particularly any time the blond and former Hyuuga-princess found themselves alone together. _'Using sleep-darts was just low. I'm honestly surprised at Hinata-chan's self-restraint. If it had been me Anko had interrupted, we would have come to blows by now.'_

Hinata's grin upon finding herself suddenly in Spring with no Anko in sight was ear-to-ear. "Naruto-kun," she called quietly, producing an echo as her clones mimicked her. The trio paused long enough to take stock of each others' presence before sharing identical looks of mischief.

"Business first," Shizune interrupted, just as the trio had seemed to reach an agreement and sighted in one of the available blonds.

"But, but—!" the girls started, only to be brought short by an eye-roll from the eldest apprentice.

"No. It can wait." Seeing the petulant looks sent her way, she sighed before taking two of them by an arm and shoving one each towards a Naruto. "You two go with this group into town," she directed the pair before turning her attention to remaining copy. "And you come with us." So saying, she grabbed the duo of just Naruto and Hinata and began forcibly pushing them towards where she remembered the Daimyo's estate to be. Neither foxy-eared apprentice missed the young woman's murmured threats to put her younger counterparts on Tsunade-duty for the next month.

* * *

"So, what's with the notebook?" Naruto asked as he, Shizune, and Hinata walked out of yet another civilian general-goods store. Further up the road, he could make out Dane and Isaribi making their way into another of the few clothing stores in the village—apparently, the retired ninja was looking into expanding his business into the civilian side of things.

Shizune didn't bother to look up from the notebook in question as she answered, steering them towards another shop. "We're comparing notes."

"On...?" the boy lead, trying to peer over her shoulder only to be pushed gently away.

"Regional pricing," the brunette murmured, her attention obviously not entirely on the subject at hand. "It's an idea that's been nagging at me for a while now—something you said, actually. Hinata-chan, would you mind?"

Having an idea of what Shizune was asking, she asked, "Naruto-kun, how much would you say a pound of rice costs in Fire Country on average?"

The blond shrugged. "For me, inside Konoha? About three hundred Ryu. Outside Konoha, around eighty to a hundred and twenty depending on the time of year and the weather. Right now, I'd say about ninety five or so."

"Three fifty, here," Shizune answered, drawing a nod from Hinata.

The blond blinked and hummed in thought for a moment before nodding. "Right. They'd have to ship it in and it's out of season."

"Right," Hinata nodded. "So... how do you think they would feel about, say one hundred and twenty five now, and one-fifty when the market peaks?"

"They'd pay it, gladly," the blond answered, getting nods.

"And whoever could provide the rice at that cost would get to keep the remainder for themselves. Not to mention endearing themselves to the civilian populace..."

"Us?" he asked, getting more nods.

Flipping a page in her notebook, Shizune marked down another figure before looking up to regard the pair. "It would be more of a profit than that, actually, if we could get supplies from the source instead of second-or-third hand. However, I think the easiest thing to do for now to keep from stepping on too many toes all at once would be to deal with the guilds directly and buy in bulk—or, at the very least, through someone already known to them. Don't want them catching wind of what we're doing..." she murmured, biting her lip pensively before continuing. "From there, we could seal and move the goods where they needed to go the same day—or pay someone else to do it." Sighing quietly, the woman rubbed at her forehead briefly before starting off further down the street. "Unfortunately, this is too much for me to handle alone—even with clones. That's why I'm making a list, and it's why you're here. By the end of the week we should be able to start moving on the civilian side of things. If everything goes well with Yukie-chan, then we should be able to start moving on the ninja side sooner."

Taking a moment to think it over, Naruto asked, "What kind of things are we looking to move?"

"Everything," Shizune smiled. "All of Snow is dependent on imports for the majority of their fruits and vegetables and much of their other consumable goods. Rice, wheat, flour, sugar, pretty much any spice you care to name. And that's just necessities. On the other hand, they're fairly well known for their exports of pelts and meats from various animals that typically only range up this far. And of course there are the local plants and lichen that we haven't had much opportunity to study—an herbalist or chemist would have a field day if we could use Spring for a base of operations for development of new medicine. I don't believe it would be an exaggeration to say that with your technique, we could financially control the vast majority of the country within eight months to a year. If we were to apply the same strategy elsewhere, quickly and quietly enough, we could do the same with many of the other Elemental Nations. Wind and Water would likely be the easiest and should be among our first attempts at this."

"So, we're buying the map out from under everyone else?"

Hinata nodded as she pondered the implications of the eldest apprentice's plan. "Not the whole map, just the parts that matter most—in this case, the supply lines. Wars are won or lost on a nation's ability to out-spend their enemy and make sure their soldiers remain fed and equipped, preferably at the expense of the opposing force. Money, weapons, and food—cut off from any one of these, a nation loses the ability to wage war. It's been done before, but never on this scale—actually, previous failed attempts lead to the first and second great ninja wars. Well, indirectly. It's one of the more publicized excuses, but it was really just that—the excuse they needed to go to war on a large scale as opposed to sending the occasional assassination team. It's also why Suna was so eager to throw in with Orochimaru—they'd been slowly bled nearly dry by their Daimyo outsourcing labor to other villages."

"Think of it as a preemptive strike," Shizune suggested. "That little three-way tiff between Konoha, Suna, and Oto was just the tip of the ice berg. With Konoha weakened, the other villages will likely start causing trouble within the next five years or so, and it won't just be Konoha in the line of fire. Nowhere will be safe. Everyone, ninja and civilian alike, will be a target. By that time, we can have them so dependent upon our services that they would stave were we to cut them off."

"And we get rich in the process," Naruto deadpanned, drawing a pair of matching smiles from the two kunoichi.

"Richer," Hinata corrected. "Of course, that's only if things go well. If someone manages to figure out just what it is we're trying to accomplish before we've got everything in place, things will get ugly. The other villages will likely see it as a declaration of war. The best thing for us to do is to either keep moving and make sure no one village can be held accountable for our actions, or to find a village strong enough that no one would dare march on it."

"Which is where our other set of copies come in," Shizune supplied. Seeing the curious looks on the pair's faces, she elaborated. "We killed Snow's last Daimyo and put the current one in power. It helps things a bit that the last guy was a nut and had the leader of their hidden village executed so he could rule it himself—though how he managed that is beyond me, seeing as the man himself was barely jonin in skill and entirely too full of himself to have survived as long as he did... To say she owes us is an understatement." Turning to Naruto, she bit her lip before asking quietly, "I know it's not 'Hokage,' but how does Yukikage sound?"

Naruto blinked, attempting to process that. "What?"

"Just say 'yes,' Naruto-kun," Hinata murmured into one of his ears, a soft smile crossing her lips.

"But... we can't— there's no way," Naruto started, only to see both the other apprentices shake their heads.

Shizune cut the boy off, placing a finger on his lips to silence him. "Orochimaru built Oto up from the ground up from mostly missing-nin and orphans. Given a few years to secure those missing-nin's loyalty with money and a little security and to train up the orphans, he was able to use them as the bulk of his force to cripple Konoha—despite our serious advantage in numbers. Their ninja were, on average, far better-trained than ours at the lower ranks from what I've read of the reports—your own included. You do realize most of the enemies you faced simply trying to retrieve Sasuke were high-chuunin to low-jonin level in skill, backed with those cursed seals that brought them up to mid-jonin in strength—the exception being the kenjutsu specialist with the bone kekkai genkai. He was easily a solid jonin-level ninja. The only reason they lost was lack of experience, underestimating your retrieval team, and the one case of failing health to be honest. And it wasn't even a true loss, seeing as they accomplished their goal—that is, holding off your team long enough to get Sasuke to Orochimaru."

Shaking her head, the eldest apprentice continued. "The genin involved in the attack were typically around mid-chuunin level skill, the chuunin either low-jonin in skill... the odd part was that the jonin were so lacking in comparison. The only explanation Konoha had come up with before we left was that it was because they were mostly made up of those original missing-nin, most of whom never progressed past chuunin rank and likely didn't continue their training once they settled down. Then again, a village of lazy adult ninja doesn't make much sense, leaving me wondering if Orochimaru didn't keep most of his more useful assets on station in Oto in the event they were attacked as a target of opportunity. This kind of thing drives the people in the Intel sections nuts, because it typically leads to the type of recursive thinking that breeds paranoia and delusion in even sane people."

"So, following that example, if we can't find a great ninja village we'll just build our own," Hinata smiled.

Nodding, Shizune added, "This way we can make our own laws instead of having to work within a system already in place and designed to benefit a village council or a few wealthy businessmen, as opposed to the village as a whole. In fact, we can do away with the need for a council altogether and never have to worry about civilians and certain families trying to force their will on everyone else. We can take everything useful from Konoha, trim away the parts we don't need or that wind up being useless, and improve on things where we can."

* * *

"Yukie-chan!"

Kazahana Koyuki, or Fujikaze Yukie depending on who one asked and the day of the week, was having a particularly bad week. Things had been so dull lately. Paperwork was piling up, filming for the Icha Icha movie had been delayed _again_, the ninja under her command were growing restless and she had absolutely no idea how to run a ninja village on top of running the rest of the country—her uncle had had all of her father's advisers assassinated, preferring not to have to deal with councils and cabinets, and while there were a great many men and women lined up to take whatever job she offered she honestly didn't trust a single one of them. She was a firm believer of the old adage that those who desire positions of power are the ones who should be kept furthest from them. Between the stress and the boredom, it was almost enough to drive one to drink—or back to drinking, should that person be attempting to quit. Some days, it made her wonder how Tsunade handled the job of being Hokage—until she remembered that the woman in question had pretty much hand-picked her favorites out of that village and took off when the village had their collective gazes turned the other way. On the sound of the familiar voice at just the right pitch to irritate her, she hesitantly lifted her mug of hot cocoa and sniffed if—wondering if someone had put something stronger than chocolate in it, out of sympathy for her plight. After all, there was no possible _way_...

The door to her office burst open, cutting her off mid-thought to admit an orange-and-black clad bundle of energy, followed by another pair of familiar faces. As the group stepped further into the office and the one she recognized as Tsunade's assistant Shizune closed the door, she took in the trio of hallucinations and blinked. "I have no idea what my secretary put in my cocoa, but I have far too much paperwork to deal with hallucinations right now. You'll have to make an appointment."

"You're not drunk or drugged, nee-chan," the blond rolled his eyes, plopping down in one of the seats in front of her desk.

"Don't call me that. And how are you sure you aren't just drug-induced figments of my imagination?" she asked, before motioning towards his head. "The last time I checked, neither you nor Hinata-san had an extra set of ears."

"It's a recent development, and a long story," Shizune sighed, taking a seat on the other side of Naruto from Hinata.

Looking over the desk, Hinata asked, "Busy week?"

Nodding, the ruler/actress turned her attention back to the blond. "You're really here?"

"Yep," the boy nodded, grinning.

"Thank the gods," the woman breathed. A moment later found her out of her seat and over the desk, sending papers scattering across the floor. A moment after that, the sound of a pair of bodies and a chair hitting the floor resounded through the room as she ploughed into the boy and sent them both sprawling to the ground. "You've come to rescue me again," the woman murmured from amongst the tangle of limbs and chair.

"It must have been a more trying week than she let on," Shizune mused, drawing a nod from Hinata.

Below the suddenly affectionate actress, Naruto rolled his eyes. "Quitting already, Hime-chan?"

"Yes. Anything. I quit. You can have it. Just get me out of here," she half groaned, half whined.

Having dealt with Tsunade for years and suffered through the woman's short stint as Hokage, Shizune could spot an opening a mile away and the woman currently using their favorite blond as a cuddle toy wasn't joking. Situations such as this needed to be handled with care, otherwise they would degenerate into a night of drunken debauchery and more of the same the next day. She decided to try the 'softly, softly' approach first. "How are things with your ninja forces going?"

Blowing out an irritated breath and getting a flinch from Naruto as it mostly fell over his whiskers, the actress-turned-ruler shrugged. "How should I know? I'm not a ninja. I don't know how to run a ninja village. All the jonin do is bitch that I need to do something, or make one of them leader so they can do something, but I don't trust any of them further than I could throw them."

The answer was muffled, but the eldest apprentice had little trouble making it out—years of practice dealing with Tsunade's occasional fits and tantrums helped. Shizune hummed, pretending to give the matter thought before quietly suggesting, "We could take it off of your hands for you."

From his position mostly underneath the older woman, Naruto found Yukie's smile to be nearly blinding as she pulled up enough to look him in the eye. "Congratulations on your promotion to Yukikage, Uzumaki-sama," the woman beamed, sealing the deal with a kiss to the boy's forehead.

Shizune rolled her eyes, tuning out Hinata's giggles as she deadpanned, "I was thinking more along the lines of Tsunade-shishou." Besides, she had wanted to be the one to say that eventually, damnit!

Yukie shrugged. "She can have it, then."

"Hey wait a minute, wasn't I just Yukiekage? Err, Yukikage," he quickly corrected, seeing more than one smirk at the slip of the tongue. "Shouldn't I get to choose my own successor? Not even five minutes on the job and I'm fired already."

"I'm your Daimyo, _Yukie_kage-sama. You have to follow my orders," the actress grinned, drawing a pout from the blond for her repetition of his slip. Somehow, he got the feeling she wouldn't be likely to let that go any time soon.

"I thought you quit," the blond argued.

Humming, Yukie brought a finger to her lips in mock thought before grinning. "Congratulations on your promotion to Daimyo, Uzumaki-sama."

"Here I thought you'd have to marry in," the eldest apprentice quipped. Seeing Yukie open her mouth to retort—or make an offer—Shizune cut her off. "All joking aside," Shizune started, straining not to laugh, only to be interrupted herself.

Rolling onto her back and fixing the brunette with an annoyed look, the actress rolled her eyes. "All joking aside, I was serious about the ninja village. You can have it. I've got no idea how to run one. If Naruto-kun can't have it, give it to Tsunade."

"She'll likely refuse," Hinata pointed out, drawing a nod from Naruto.

"Knowing Baa-chan, yeah. She'll probably pass it off to Ero-sannin," the boy grumbled, rolling to his feet and offering the actress a hand up, which she accepted.

"Jiraiya-sama will likely refuse as well," Shizune mused quietly. "Maybe..."

"You could run it," Yukie interrupted.

Shaking her head, Shizune smiled. "I appreciate the compliment, but no. I'm barely a special-jonin, despite being Tsunade-sama's apprentice. I haven't really had time to try for the exam for full jonin rank."

"So they can both have it. Alternate days or something. I don't care," the ruler huffed, looking around her office at the mess of paperwork she'd made. "You can work something out with them later. I have enough crap to deal with from the other Daimyos to have to try splitting my attention between dealing with that bunch of shriveled-dick whiners, the mask-wearing whiners claiming to be my jonin, and the prissy whiners who can't settle on a script. It doesn't help that, despite being too old and shriveled up to actually use their equipment for anything, they still eye me up like a piece of meat on display. Suddenly, _all_ the Daimyo meetings are being held in or near Spring. It's driving me nuts."

"You're right," Shizune nodded agreement, cringing slightly at the actress-turned-Daimyo's description of her fellow lords of the various lands. "We can't really do much about the other Daimyos, unfortunately. ...Well, unless you want to contract out an assassination or three," she shrugged, her tone half in jest, though she did not fail to notice the way the woman perked up at the idea. "Which would be a bad idea," she hastily added, before Yukie could do just that. "In any case, we'll need access to your shinobi records. We need an accurate census of active-duty personelle, students, blueprints of the shinobi facilities..."

Naruto tuned the brunette out as she went on to list things they would need to get the shinobi sector under control. Glancing up at Yukie, he found her doing much the same. "She does this, occasionally. You just have to ignore her until she winds down and she'll end up repeating it all anyway later," Naruto stage-whispered, drawing laughs from Yukie and Hinata and a twitch of irritation from the eldest apprentice.

Throwing a glare at the blond and making a mental note to pencil him in for Tsunade-duty later—and possibly Yukie-duty, from the look of things—Shizune took a slow breath before letting it out in a quiet sigh. "Fine. We should probably have Tsunade-shishou and Jiraiya-sama here when we do this—and we may as well have the others on board too. Naruto-kun, would you do the honors?" She had wanted to have everything wrapped up and just waiting to surprise her master, but she had to admit that it was likely a bigger job than she had anticipated and the extra hands couldn't hurt. Hinata would just have to deal with Anko on her own terms.

"Uh, no," the blond hesitantly denied. Seeing the questioning looks from the females in the room, the boy threw them a nervous grin and scratched the back of his head out of habit. "See, I've been thinking since we started after Dane and Isaribi and we realized this is where they were headed. There's something I need to check on."

As it turned out, that something turned out to be easier to find than anyone had anticipated. The building itself had been locked down and guarded by several ninja at every access point, but with the Daimyo there, they were waved through and up to the office/control booth overlooking the main floor of the building. Looking out over the large hangar bay attached to the shinobi complex from the upper-level observation deck, Hinata and Shizune looked between Naruto and the dozen oblong shapes below currently being swarmed over by a group of clones. "They didn't make just one," Hinata murmured, drawing a nod from the boy.

"I figured they hadn't. It was too well made to be a first attempt," Naruto admitted.

"What are you going to do with them?" Koyuki asked quietly, echoing the thoughts of the two kunoichi.

Watching his clones scurry about below while the occasional update streamed in from a dispersed clone, Naruto grinned. "We're gonna need Dane. And Ero-sannin. And I need a pen and my original. And I really, really want the guys who designed these things to begin with."

On hearing the request for those individuals, Shizune blinked. "Naruto-kun, has anyone told you lately that you're brilliant?"

"Nope, but I like hearing it." He stiffened as a shiver ran from ears-to-tail on finding a pair of lips and teeth nibbling at one of his original ears.

"You're brilliant," Hinata murmured.

* * *

Hundreds of kilometers south of the Land of Snow, the original Shizune blinked before a small smile crossed her lips. _'Success!'_

Noting the change in her first apprentice's demeanor, Tsunade eyed her suspiciously. "Is there something I should know about?"

"Yes," Shizune smiled, refusing to elaborate further.

"What do you have planned?"

"Planned, Tsunade-shishou?" Shizune asked, using the pig clasped in her arms to add to her innocent look.

The group as a whole, minus Shizune herself, snorted. "Not buying it," Tenten grinned. "That's the same look Hinata gets..." she trailed off, shooting a suspicious glance between elder and younger apprentice.

"The same look I get...?" Hinata asked, a small smile crossing her face and joining Shizune in the innocent act.

Temari rolled her eyes. "The same look you get when you try to get into blondie's pants," she deadpanned. A smirk crept across her face as she asked, "How's that working out for you, anyway?"

"Damn _Anko_," Hinata fumed quietly, earning a chortle from the woman in question.

"Thought so," the Suna kunoichi chuckled. "Even if it is the same look, I really doubt she's trying..." she trailed off, seeing the looks the others were sending her way. "Really? Another one?" She turned a look of irritation towards Hinata. "You've been recruiting," she accused.

The dark-haired girl smiled, but shook her head. "Naruto-kun just has that effect on people."

Temari rolled her eyed, asking, "Is there anyone here who isn't? I mean, even the gender-confused one out getting lunch for us with him has been sending looks his way."

"Haku's a guy," Tenten sighed, amending, "Not ruling out that he's gay."

Temari snorted. "You keep thinking that."

"Huh?" Tenten blinked, shooting a look at Hinata for confirmation. On the girl's smile, and Tsunade and Shizune studiously avoiding her gaze, she rolled her eyes. "Didn't we have this conversation last week?" Shrugging it off, she asked, "So, Shizune... Naruto-kun?"

The eldest apprentice studiously ignored the bun-haired girl. Beside her, Tsunade smirked. "She's had it bad for him since he and Jiraiya found us. I think it's only just set in that no one here cares about the age difference."

"You're one to speak," Shizune quietly rebutted, drawing a glare from her mentor.

"What was that? You're not too old for me to take over my knee," the Sannin threatened.

Shizune rolled her eyes, deciding to call the Sannin's bluff—the woman was terrible at gambling, and this would just be another example of it. "You haven't gotten laid in nearly twenty years. You would _not_ protest."

"Yes I would," Tsunade denied. "It'd be too... weird."

"So, no one but me finds this situation weird?" Temari asked, interrupting the byplay.

"Nope," Hinata beamed. "That's just Naruto-kun."

Temari shook her head. "Yeah, but it's not just one or two of us—it's all of us, from what I can tell. Even Yuugao, and she hasn't been here all that long." The woman in question appeared to be paying rapt attention to their surroundings and ignoring the conversation, the moment several sets of eyes turned to her—entirely too nonchalant to be innocent. "Hell, even those from the other group are starting to eye him up."

Tenten nodded. "She has a point," she agreed slowly. "Every female with a pulse at least gives him a twice-over. Not to mention the gropers," she deadpanned. "Maybe it has something to do with the changes, pheromones or something?"

Hinata shook her head. "You're not listening. That's just Naruto-kun. It has _always _been that way—ever since we were children. For a short time, Naruto-kun was very popular—especially amongst the younger female population and most especially among those whose parents were not in Konoha at the time of the attack. At least, that is before they had an image to attach to the warnings from their parents and suddenly it became more popular to use his own nature against him to lure him into traps or otherwise betray his trust. That happened successfully two, maybe three times. And then he started 'getting lost' if someone who had supposedly wanted to be his friend invited him to go somewhere."

"Well," Tenten hummed. "I _did_ think he was kind of cool, when we were in the exam. But at the time, I was more focused on passing..."

"But you noticed," Hinata said, drawing a nod from both Tenten and Temari. "He just draws people to him. Aside from myself, Ayame has known Naruto the longest. Why do you think she agreed to join Jiraiya's group? She hadn't had an honest date in over a year."

"Creepy little stalker," the Suna kunoichi murmured. There were sounds of agreement all around before Temari smirked. "So, if we're all in this together..." she trailed off, looking to Hinata.

The former Hyuuga smiled. "I told you before, I don't mind sharing."

"Right," Temari nodded. Chuckling quietly at the absurdity of the conversation, she asked, "So, what are the sleeping arrangements going to be?"

"Clones," Hinata, Shizune, and Anko answered as one—dispelling any notion Temari may have had that they weren't serious. Hinata continued, "But first, we have to do something about Anko."

The special-jonin snorted. "As if you could."

Shizune giggled. "I think that's between the two of you."

Hinata shook her head. "No, I'm pretty sure she's an equal-opportunity annoyance." The woman in question nodded, wearing an ear-to-ear shit-eating grin.

"You just want to be first," Yuugao—surprisingly—pointed out, getting a nod from Hinata.

"Yes," the pale-eyed girl agreed.

"I don't think any of us are really going to argue that," Shizune smiled. "So, how do we deal with Anko? Sleep agent in her food?"

"Tried that," Hinata denied, the special-jonin snorting quietly. "She just added salt and smiled. Pretty sure she's got a high tolerance to most poisons. I'm down to threatening to jyuuken her, but I don't think even the threat of never being able to achieve orgasm again would so much as phase her."

There was a collective wince of feminine sympathy. "Remind me never to piss you off. So, blow to the back of the head?" Tenten jokingly suggested.

After several minutes of suggestions, each more outlandish than the last, Tsunade finally rolled her eyes and suggested, "Just distract her." Seeing she had their attention, she continued. "Convince Yuugao to go after Anko. Or Hana. Or both."

Several feet away from the others, the ANBU operative made a quiet squeak and tried to blend in with the wall behind her without the benefit of chameleon armor. "Tsunade-sama," she murmured in irritation as beside her, Anko smirked.

"Are you sure—" Tenten started, only for Tsunade to snort.

"Yeah, I'm sure," the elder blonde grinned. "Those two have been at each other nearly every night since Yuugao joined up with us."

The ANBU in question sighed quietly before pulling out her mask and slipping it on, if only to hide the blush. "We weren't that loud," she quietly denied, silently contemplating her own revenge against the Sannin.

Temari nodded. "It could work, but who's to say she'd agree? She may side with Anko, just to be annoying."

"True," Tsunade allowed. "Or she could side with us, just to annoy Anko. Of course, there's always bribery."

"Bribery, huh?" Anko mused, shooting a glance at her sometimes lover. "If I'd known sooner..."

"Shut up," the masked woman all but growled.

"Subconsciously including yourself, Tsunade-shishou?" Shizune smirked up at her mentor, earning herself a glare and an attempted swat, which she danced away from.

Temari ignored the byplay between master and apprentice, again, and asked, "Bribe her with what?"

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "What else? The going currency of the realm seems to be blond and blue-eyed."

Conversation along those lines cut off as Naruto and Haku returned with lunch. On noticing the stares from the kunoichi of the room, the blond asked, "What'd I miss?"

Shooting a glance between the entirely-too-catty looking kunoichi and the blond, Haku smiled. "Nothing good, of that I am sure."

Seeing that her apprentice seemed to be in the mood to get under her skin and would continue to either refuse to answer or distract her away from the question, the eldest blonde rolled her eyes and surveyed the group as they settled down to eat lunch and then prepare to explore Wave today. They had gotten in late the previous night, detouring only to visit a pair of unmarked graves and pick up the sword belonging to Haku's former master. The Demon of the Bloody Mist's one-time apprentice had been mostly quiet since, having found the grave that once belonged to Zabuza sunken in and empty. Unfortunately, now that she had solid proof, Kabuto's intent for digging up the graves to begin with was clear to Tsunade—he had planned to turn over a pair of particularly powerful deceased ninja to his master, likely for Orochimaru to summon later with his thrice-damned stolen technique. At least, now that they had the Forbidden Scroll and it was fresh on her mind, Tsunade could likely convince Jiraiya to help her find a counter for the technique. Maybe they could even a way to improve on it, so it didn't require sacrificing a living individual and didn't simply bring back an advanced form of zombie...

Taking a deep breath, Tsunade ruthlessly squashed the thought before it could take root. "Okay," the woman announced, drawing the attention of the other kunoichi and the single male crammed into one of their three shared rooms. "We're getting a late start, but we've got a lot to do today. Shizune, I know you've had something in mind for a while now. Do you mind?"

Looking over a small notebook pulled from the folds of her top, the eldest apprentice hummed before starting to give out assignments. "Wave is already indebted to both Naruto-kun and our group as a whole. They are likely to be open to suggestion—especially if we can guarantee an increase in their profits. I would _like_to turn this town into a major hub for relay of goods for this part of the continent."

"How were you planning on staffing this? An operation that big would require dozens of workers, each capable of using chakra—and even blondie couldn't keep it going forever," Temari pointed out.

Shizune grinned. "Inside the target villages, such as Suna, we'll have their own ninja operating the seals. Operation of the seals and movement of cargo could be written off as a D-ranked mission and given to genin teams for training. As for Wave... I may be on to something elsewhere. We'll know more by the end of the week. Tsunade-shishou, we need to find out who Wave's current leader is and find out whether he or she would be open to the idea of recruiting volunteers for ninja service from the adolescent and child population—and I would prefer to have any students actually trained elsewhere."

The Sannin blinked. "Annexing Wave to Jiraiya's mystery village that doesn't exist yet?"

"It exists," Anko interrupted, drawing a murmur of agreement from the Sannin after a moment of thought. "She wouldn't have said anything if it didn't. Question is, where is it and what do we have to work with?"

"Something like that," the apprentice admitted, nodding to Tsunade before regarding Anko. "The details still need to be worked out—we'll know more by the end of the week at the latest."

"Which means you're already there," Yuugao accused, earning a nod of agreement. She started to open her mouth to take that further, only to catch Anko's signal at the last minute. Shrugging, she smiled faintly. Who was she to begrudge the Sannin's eldest apprentice her fun—especially if it meant letting the young woman drive her master up a wall with curiosity?

"At any rate, we should probably divide into groups for this. Someone needs to look into finding us some warehouse space to lay down the seals and for temporary storage of goods—preferably somewhere out near the docks where it would be easiest to move the goods coming in off incoming ships, fishing trawlers and the like. Naruto-kun?" Seeing she had the boy's attention, she smiled. "I want prices—the same thing we did this morning." On the blond's nod, she went on to detail specific assignments to the rest of the group—eventually winding up sending at least two sets of everyone to gather data. Eventually, she found herself left with just Naruto, Hinata, and Tsunade for company. "So, let's go wave some political clout around and see who is running this place."

Finding what passed for a town hall in Wave was surprisingly difficult, as many of the buildings were unlabeled and looked much the same. The building in question was a simple one-story wood-and-brick affair situated on the north-east side of town, just outside of what passed for a shopping district. Upon entering, a young woman looked up from her desk and, upon sighting their headbands, smiled. "Go on up, she's been expecting you. Up the stairs, the office at the end of the hall."

"She?" Naruto and Hinata mouthed, exchanging a curious glance as Tsunade led the way up a flight of stairs and down a short hall.

Upon knocking on the door at the end, they were met with a woman's voice telling them "Come in."

As he made his way through the door and past Tsunade, taking a look around the office, Naruto blinked upon spotting the woman sitting at the desk there. "You look familiar," he accused. She was dressed somewhat better than the last time he remembered seeing her, and looked like she'd actually been eating since then, even if she'd apparently been neglecting sleep.

"It's good to see you again Naruto-kun, Tsunade-sama," the woman greeted, standing and moving around the desk to shake the Sannin's hand before pulling the blond boy into a hug.

Finally, it clicked for the boy. "Hey wait! I do recognize you! You're Inari's mom, Tsunami. Heh, I almost didn't 'cause you look so different with your hair up and.. uh... I'll shut up now," he grinned, trailing off in embarrassment at having forgotten her face.

Chuckling, Tsunami traded greetings with Hinata and Shizune before moving back around her desk and taking a seat. "So, what brings you to Wave?"

"Well..." Tsunade started, shooting a glance at her eldest apprentice before grinning. "How would you feel about bringing Wave back up as one of the largest centers for trade on this side of the continent?"

"It sounds nice. What's the catch?" Tsunami knew the group before her, so she knew Wave wouldn't simply be trading the yoke of one master for another in taking up their offer. That didn't mean they hadn't learned their lesson after the first time. There would be no more Gatou's—no more mercenaries, pirates, or slavers. "Wave has already been a target twice before, for exactly those reasons. What's to say we won't be again? The wall surrounding the village doesn't extend out into the harbor and our own security/police force is not yet strong enough to handle anything more than a handful of bandits."

"Should other dealings go well elsewhere, we will be able to offer you long-term ninja protection from multiple villages. If not, we should be able to at least put a team on station, to be rotated out for fresh ninja weekly," Tsunade offered, glancing to Shizune for confirmation of the last part and getting it in the form of a nod.

"Who, exactly, are we going to be opening lines of trade with?" the de-facto leader of Wave asked, her curiosity piqued.

"Suna," Naruto grinned.

Tsunami frowned. "Suna? Isn't that on the other end of the continent, in the desert?"

"Yup," the blond nodded. Seeing the older woman sigh and roll her eyes, the boy elaborated. "We can summon stuff between villages with seals. People bring things here, drop it off with us, and we send it where it needs to go."

"Naruto-kun is oversimplifying," Shizune added. "Things such as fish would still need to be prepared and packaged before sending, but it really would cut down on the time it takes to prepare and deliver goods to their destination. And unlike caravans or shipping, there would be no need to hire guards, no need pack things in expensive salt, and so on. Actually, we could use snow to pack any perishables that won't go bad if exposed to water..."

Tsunade blinked. Slowly, her head turned fully to face her eldest apprentice. "You didn't..."

The young woman in question blushed at her slip. "Surprise?"

"Summon us now!" Tsunade commanded, turning her attention to her favorite blond.

"Ahh... no?" the boy in question denied, on seeing head shakes from both Hinata and Shizune. A moment later, he found a pair of ridiculously strong hands around his neck, shaking him and sending his head flopping back and forth. "You'll never strangle us all!" the boy laughed, before dispersing in a _poof!_of chakra and smoke.

"I can try," the eldest blonde threatened to empty air where her most annoying apprentice had once been, returning to her seat and resisting the impulse to hunt down the boy's original. Now that she knew for sure what Shizune and the rest were up to, not being involved was driving her up a wall.

"Is this normal?" Tsunami asked of the only one there that seemed to be sane.

Hinata smiled. "Every day. Welcome to our world."

Sighing, the village leader resisted the impulse to rub her suddenly throbbing temples. "I know I'm going to regret this, but we're in. What do you need us to do?"

Her expression brightening, Shizune pulled out her notebook. "Well, to start with..."

Between two of her apprentices—the third having wisely not yet sent a clone back—Tsunade gave in to the impulse to rub at the headache behind her own eyes, applying medical jutsu to dull the pain. Things were going to get very complicated soon, and somehow, she knew Naruto was to blame.

* * *

"And that's how you set a triggered seal," Jiraiya explained to a Naruto as the pair plodded along through desert sand, some distance behind the combined group of Team Jiraiya and clones of Team Tsunade.

Naruto nodded before asking, "So, it's more of the same needing-to-know-the-wording thing," he summarized, getting a nod from the Sannin. "So if this is just a two part timer seal, how do I make it go off on impact? Or proximity?"

"Impact is easy," the Sannin shrugged, drawing the correct set of seals for the boy for an example. "Proximity is a little harder. Do you want it to go off when anyone comes near? What if you forget about it at the end of a battle? That leaves a lot of unexploded ordinance just laying around, waiting for our guys, their guys, civilians, animals or anything else to just wander by it and have their day ruined. That's not to mention if one of your own team isn't aware of where you placed it and wanders across it."

"Gotcha," the blond hummed, seeing where Jiraiya was going with that line of thought, all the while copying down the impact seal and integrating it with a partially finished seal array. Finished, he folded the small slip of paper before tying it through the ring of a kunai. "So, to keep it from hurting anyone but the enemy, you'd need to either somehow distinguish the enemy from yourselves... or set another conditional trigger. Remote detonation, or timed, right?"

"Exactly," Jiraiya agreed, watching as his apprentice worked. He raised an eyebrow as the boy casually sighted up range and flung the kunai in question at the Naruto clone currently taking with Hinata—or one of the many copies of the formerly Hyuuga girl currently among their group. Both foxy teens twitched, ears swiveling followed closely by heads and eyes as the kunai came within range—but having sensed no killing intent, and both being clones, neither made a move to evade. The kunai landed in the sand less than half a meter left of that Naruto and went off, just as the boy's eyes were focusing on it. Beside him, yet another Naruto sprung into existence, already mid-swing with a kunai of his own. The blond that had been there before had no chance to block or dodge the strike, taking the sharp and pointy bit of metal to the temple and dispersing. The freshly summoned clone sheathed his weapon and stepped back into stride with the Hinata clone there, resuming their conversation as though nothing had happened. "Naruto..." Jiraiya started, glancing down at the boy beside him—the boy who, admittedly, he couldn't tell whether he was the original or simply another clone. "What did you just do?"

"Clone summoning on an impact trigger," the boy shrugged. "Hey Ero-sannin, teach me the seals for something cool."

Having a good idea exactly what kind of jutsu the boy thought would be 'cool,' the Sannin shuddered momentarily. "Sure, in a bit," he agreed, somewhat distracted by the fact that Naruto had, in essence, just reinvented Hiraishin. Oh, it wasn't that simple, for sure—but a bastardized version that did close to the same thing could be just as irritating... And, well, he wouldn't be able to let it rest at simply being a bastardized version. So it was that the Sannin resolved to sit the blond down and crack open Minato's scrolls the first chance they got when the group made camp.

"Oh, and do you know how to store chakra with seals?" the boy asked, seemingly at random. Jiraiya knew it could be anything but.

"I'll teach you that too," the Sannin promised, already working up a list of techniques that would either require no chakra control to cast or could be cast with written seals. The thought of being able to drop kunai into clusters of enemies that didn't simply explode, but rather cast combinations of techniques—fire and wind, for instance—over wide areas, powered not by whatever a ninja could shove into the seals in the heat of battle, but rather charged up over a longer period of time was very appealing. Once again he was left to wonder why ninja who, despite having and using all the separate elements on a regular basis, never thought of combining them. In fact—the Sannin's train of thought was both cut off and brought to life as Naruto flung another tagged kunai at the same group of clones. This time, when it landed, they simply disappeared. "Did you just...?"

"Heh," the boy grinned. "Maybe. So, what _can_you do with live enemy ninja?"

"That was a storage seal, wasn't it?" the Sannin asked, just for clarification. Getting a nod, he grinned as the pair came across the kunai. Picking it up, he triggered the seal on the tag to release what the seal had been holding—in this case, a pair of clones—and watched as a pair of Naruto and Hinata tumbled out onto the sand at his feet. "Nice work, brat."

The Naruto pulling himself up and dusting sand out of his clothes shot a glare at his seal-happy counterpart. "Oi! Don't do that again!"

"Eh?" asked the original—or at least, the one who had been throwing kunai.

The second blond rolled his eyes. "It was all black. No sound, no light, no nothing. We couldn't breathe, but we didn't need to. Hell, if I hadn't been holding onto Hinata-chan's hand at the time, I wouldn't even have known she was there." Seeing the other clone's look of skepticism, he shrugged. "See for yourself." So saying, the clone dispersed.

"Oh, wow, that sucks," the Naruto with Jiraiya agreed, quickly creating another copy of himself to replace the one that had popped. Hinata creating and dispersing a clone in that instant didn't so much a draw a raised eyebrow, as the boy knew she'd be spreading the same memory he'd just had across all of her own clones. What he did not know, and would not until much later, was that the girl in question had sent along a command with the memory and some time that night, one of her would approach Tenten and they would be having a discussion...

"This is why we don't usually store high-value targets in scrolls," Jiraiya clarified for the small group. Seeing as he had their attention, he continued. "It's great for keeping someone in stasis if you want to transport them securely and discretely, but eventually they break. Sensory deprivation is actually a fairly common interrogation technique, though it's usually genjutsu induced. Either way, it achieves the same effect. So, yes," he turned his attention fully on the Naruto that had created the seal. "It's useful. If you think you can use it and get it to work in a battle, do it. But don't use it on our own people—even for a prank." Even he had to admit, the thought of being stuck in one of those things for any prolonged period of time was unnerving.

"It's too bad you can hear it coming," Hinata pointed out, getting a nod from Jiraiya.

After a moment, Naruto slowly nodded. "The paper fluttering is kind of a giveaway. What if we just carved the seals directly onto the kunai? Or put them into one of those arrays that's supposed to shrink down to fit onto something?"

"That would work," Jiraiya agreed, only to add, "up until the first time an enemy comes back and collects one of the ones that have already gone off. That's why we usually use paper seals—they're easier to destroy and even if they don't go off, rain will smudge them into illegibility."

Naruto shrugged. "So, we add timers to all of them. You throw it, it hits and does what it's supposed to, then a few seconds later it either explodes into sharp little bits of steel or... summons itself back to your pouch. Or somewhere else, if it's one of the sealing ones."

The Sannin nodded. "That could work, but if the ones meant to be throwing jutsu around go off, then just send themselves back to your pouch, they're basically just regular kunai with the same problem as before again."

"So we take it a step further," Hinata grinned. Seeing she had their attention, she elaborated. "Mark each projectile with at least," here, she paused to count, "six sets of seals—two for chakra storage, one for summoning or sending, one for whatever it is you want that type or ordinance to do, one for the first conditional such as impact, and one for a timer. Capture-type projectiles would be set to go off on impact and store anyone within their range, then a second later send themselves somewhere convenient out of the way of battle. When they get there, you could have _another_seal array set to send a fresh capture-type projectile back to your pouch to replace the one you used." Seeing the pair nodding, she continued. "Along the same lines would be ordinance projectiles—kunai, shuriken, senbon or whatever you prefer that set off area-type jutsu on impact. That's not even counting adding a seal layer for shuriken kage bunshin, to turn a single projectile into a rain of steel—even if it can't duplicate the chakra stored in the seals, it would be good for both blanketing an area with fire and confusing the enemy as to which one is the truly dangerous one. And if we're going that far, we might as well add a seal for regular bunshin, and we'll have a mixed rain of deadly and illusory weapons so they can't even tell which ones are real without wasting chakra to disperse or deflect the lot of them. Combine it with a storage seal full of water and a seal to use kirigakure no jutsu and you've got an instant fog bank, which you could turn poisonous with the right medical jutsu. Enough humidity in the air, and a strong enough electrical jutsu could take out anyone nearby. If you can come up with some kind of seal to increase the pull of gravity, then once they're above their target area they can't really be deflected with wind jutsu and someone has to risk throwing out a fire technique to try to incinerate them. Then, once they've spent the chakra in their primary chakra-storage seals, the second conditional trigger would go off..." Hinata paused. "Could you set them to send themselves off once they're out of chakra, instead of on a timer?"

"It's a little harder, but doable," Jiraiya agreed.

"Right. So we do that. When they're out of chakra, like the capture-types, they could go to a seal array off of the battle field... where they would be recharged, from a larger chakra storage seal."

Both Sannin and apprentice blinked. "Holy..."

"Shit," the Sannin finished.

Hinata's grin was ear-to-ear. "Naruto-kun could feed it daily and not notice the expenditure. The spent weapons could be sent there, recharge, and return to our weapons pouches ready for reuse and we'd have that much more chakra to spend on other things."

"It'd never work," Jiraiya tried to deny. "The enemy would eventually wise up and either not cluster up or would spam kawarimi every time the wind blowed—not that driving them mad with paranoia is a bad thing—or the seals would all run dry at once, or someone would figure out how to disrupt localized jutsu, and if you throw enough you'd eventually have a few left over..."

"Add another chakra storage seal tied to a conditional trigger, set to explode _violently_should any enemy... not bearing a matching seal pick it up, or even so much as come within a meter of it?" she suggested.

"Maybe," the Sannin allowed...

"Oh!" Naruto started, before they realized it had been both of them there. Trading a quick look between themselves, it was decided the more recently summoned Naruto would go. "What about a seal to check to see if the other seals, including itself, are still intact, and then if they aren't, boom? Or if they come into contact with foreign chakra, or if they go too long without contact with our chakra, or if they don't move for more than a minute, of if they're touched by anything other than cloth or flesh..."

"Ok, ok!" Jiraiya laughed, waving the blond down. "I think that's paranoid enough even for me. Do it."

"We're going to need something a bit more complex than summoning and storage," the older Naruto began. "We'll need jutsu from at least wind, fire, and lightning since those're the easiest to feed. And we'll need the charing array, and somewhere secure to put it. And we'll need that seal to store chakra. And..." Naruto blinked, remembering a project he'd been working on well before the incident with Akatsuki. He had been trying, without the aid of seals, to create a chakra-based shield to turn away projectiles and potentially shield from hand-to-hand impacts. It had worked, but it ate chakra on a level that no one but Naruto would have been comfortable with—he had even seen something like it put into action in the Land of Snow, with technology. But with a chakra storage seal, that chakra cost could be mitigated. With a conditional seal, set only to trigger the shield if an enemy projectile came within a few inches of the user, it would automate the process and further cut back on chakra expenditure. With some work, he could probably narrow it down further so that the chakra shield only deployed over the area being struck as opposed to across the whole body. And, unlike the technique's technological cousin, seals wouldn't short when exposed to electrical-based jutsu. The only downside he could see would be the user potentially coming to rely too much on that seal array... so they would have to train both with and without it, so their reflexes would constantly be focused towards dodging as opposed to letting the shield do the work. The bigger problem, the blond soon realized, was that this was becoming far too many seals to remember to charge on a daily basis—which was ok, since it tied in well with another idea he'd been tinkering with: chakra summoning and sharing.

"I'm going to need to figure out how to link chakra storage seals." Seeing the Sannin's confused expression, the blond rolled his eyes and gave a grunt of annoyance before he dispersed.

"Oi! Baachan!" a Naruto-clone just out of normal earshot yelled, drawing Tsunade's attention and glare.

"What is it, brat?" she asked, refraining from swatting him only because he was outside convenient swatting range.

"Teach me how to make that seal," he demanded, pointing at the one on her forehead.

Tsunade blinked, and blinked again. "Why? You don't really need it..."

Seeing that he hadn't immediately been denied, Naruto grinned. "I don't, but you do. And so does Shizune-chan, and Hinata-chan, and everyone else. That, and I'm working on something that could use parts of it."

"No. And explain," Tsunade demanded.

"Why not?" the boy asked, annoyed.

Tsunade smirked. "Consider it... a clan technique."

"Then..." Naruto began, pausing as he realized he had no counter-argument. ...Before starting again, as he came upon the most obvious answer. "Then we'll make our own clan!"

Tsunade snorted. "Is that so?"

"Sure, why not?" the boy asked, his attention focused on the taller blonde and so not noticing the looks traded between the other kunoichi of the group. Those that had been there saw that this was starting to echo a conversation earlier in the day in Wave, while those that had not could easily see where it was going.

To those kunoichi's collective shock, Tsunade shrugged. "I'll consider it."

Annoyed, Naruto crossed his arms and shot her a glare. "Fine. But don't think too long."

"So what'd you need it for anyway, brat?" Anko asked, more used to the blond's occasional tangents than most, seeing as she had been among the group that had been with him the longest and she tended to do the same thing on occasion.

Naruto grinned, arms uncrossing and one going to scratch at the back of his head. "Linked chakra sharing seals powering baa-chan's medical seal and a small seal array to do other stuff, all pulling from my chakra and storing it up over time and triggered in an emergency, or when somebody's chakra runs dry, or when you want to try something big..." The blond trailed off with a shrug. After all, it would take a while to go into the list of seals he'd want to add to the array, and the list in question would likely keep growing as needs arose—seals to automatically summon/send the bearer to a safe house if they were seriously injured beyond what the medical seal could take care of, the chakra shield seal, and so on.

There was a collective blink as the assembled kunoichi digested that before Hana, coming to the same conclusion as the others first, suddenly shouted, "I'm in!"

"Me too," Anko agreed, which was echoed by every female present.

Tsunade hummed, her expression pensive but inside, she was grinning like a loon. "You'll need to test it before putting it into practice..." she started, getting a nod from Naruto.

"We've already got something," he agreed, gesturing between himself, Hinata, and Jiraiya. "I think you'll liiiike it," he singsonged.

"Would you mind sharing, Naruto-kun?" Kurenai asked, curious to see just where this was going, as Jiraiya and another Hinata rejoined the group from where the Sannin had been trying to teach the blond without the distraction the others inevitably provided.

"Well, you see, it's like this..." Naruto grinned, flicking a kunai out into the sand some meters away, where another Naruto came into being and waved to the group before picking up the kunai and dispersing.

* * *

"Sometimes... you scare me."

Beside the semi-retired ninja-turned-tailor, the Toad Sannin nodded. "I'm beginning to agree."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Can you do it or not?"

"Oh, it can be done. At least on my end. And that's the frightening part," Jiraiya admitted.

Nodding, Dane agreed. "It'd take a while... or a team of clones helping out."

"Which we _have_," Naruto insisted, his tone urging them to make a decision.

"Doable," the tailor shrugged. "What's the altitude limit on these things?"

It was Naruto's turn to shrug. "Not a clue. The local ninja are still looking for the guys that designed and built them. We've got pilot crew and maintenance crew, but no one really knows what they can really do. And besides, I've got some ideas—"

Jiraiya groaned. "What now?"

Chuckling, the blond scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Well, the one they sent after us was kinda slow. And noisy, up close—enough that most people would be able to pick it up from the ground if they were flying over Konoha. So..."

"So in addition to near invisibility, you want silence," Dane surmised.

"Seals to quiet the engines?" Jiraiya suggested, drawing a grin and a shake of the head from Naruto.

"Why bother with engines at all?" Seeing the raised eyebrows, he elaborated. "They're loud, they put out exhaust which could be tracked, heat—again, trackable—and you have to waste space and weight on fuel. What these guys do understand of them is there's a definite weight limit to how much they can carry. So, cut out fuel for the engines, and the engines themselves, and you've gotten rid of half the thing's weight. And again, the engines were slow. So, can we use jutsu?"

"That's a _lot_of chakra," Jiraiya protested. "And it's shaped all wrong for speed anyway."

"So we change the shape," Naruto shrugged.

"More chakra," Jiraiya pointed out.

"Not much," the blond argued. "See, the guys we fought against here had these suit-things. They were kinda neat, actually. The only problem with them was they really, really didn't like my sword. Anyway... they had chakra shields, chakra storage, pretty sure the suits themselves were chakra-strengthened light armor, but the best thing of all was they could fly. They had these little pop-out wings on the back that used chakra to fly. Except, they weren't so much real wings as some kinda tubes with some stuff stretched between them—kind of like a bat's wing. So, when they weren't needed they stayed flat against the back of the armor and you couldn't tell they were there, but as soon as they powered them up, the things stretched out..."

Both the older ninja were nodding. It was Dane who asked, "So, one setting for the slow, oblong shape..."

"For sitting still over an area," Naruto supplied.

"Reconnaissance," Jiraiya supplied. "Mount cameras on the thing and you can have a detailed map of someone's village while you sit pretty over their heads, invisible and silent—hell, from range if you use a telescoping lens. Then, when it's time to move..."

"The pole-things shift the whole upper structure into something more aerodynamic," Naruto grinned. Seeing the suspicious looks from the older ninja, he rolled his eyes. "You're talking to the guy who can henge into a bird any time he feels like it. I did some reading. I'm allowed to know big words, damnit!"

Shaking his head, Jiraiya continued. "So, you go from blimp to flying wing. It'd be a bitch to get the shape right..."

"That's what we need the sciency guys for!" Naruto gestured out towards the bottom of the hangar and the second office, presumably where the people in question had set up shop.

"You've still got the problem of powering it," Jiraiya pointed out. "How much does that cloth eat?"

Dane shrugged. "Over a small area, not much. You wouldn't really notice it. Over that large an area? You'd notice, alright. You would need a constant supply from at least a jonin. Per hour, to keep chakra exhaustion from setting in—and that's just a guess."

"And you can't provide that much, on top of everything else, and still having enough to fight," the Sannin added before Naruto could claim that that was nothing for him.

Looking annoyed, the blond huffed, "So get it from somewhere else."

"It's not like there's some magical, untapped well of chakra just sitting around unused, brat," Dane pointed out.

"Actually," Jiraiya started, only to have Naruto finish for him.

"There is," the blond murmured.

The Sannin blinked, even as the tailor snorted. "Hell, if there is, I'd like some of that."

"How do you know about natural chakra?" the Sannin asked of his student, causing the retired ninja's mouth to snap shut.

"Eh? What's that?" Naruto asked, before shaking his head. "I was thinking more along the lines of the same way non-ninja villages get electricity."

"An electric motor is still a motor," the Sannin put in.

"I know that, jackass!" Naruto attempted to swat the Sannin, only to have to dodge a retaliatory blow himself. "Wind jutsu for making it move! Anyway, they burn stuff, or they use rivers and dams, or they use solar power."

"Photovoltaic cells are ridiculously rare, and expensive, and have to be summoned because sure as hell no one in these parts knows how to make them," Jiraiya again took it upon himself to rain on the boy's parade.

Naruto's reply brought the Sannin up short. "Seals." Jiraiya blinked. "And we've got the perfect place to put them, if we can figure out how—because it's not like they're doing much with all that sand just sitting around in the Land of Wind. We could even set them to self-destruct the same way the kunai will, if you're paranoid. Once I've got the chakra-summoning seal figured out, I'd just need somewhere to point it."

Jiraiya shook his head. "What will you put the seals on? How will you hide it? How will they cover enough of an area to be effective?"

"More seals!" the boy all but growled, as the Sannin continued to poke holes in his idea. "Put them on something—another kunai for all I care. Bury the damn thing out in the desert—" Seeing Jiraiya about to open his mouth, the blond forged ahead. "Use the goddamn sand! Turn the whole freaking desert into a solar battery with a single seal! It's a large, mostly-unbroken expanse of sand, so a single seal set to go 'hey look, let's pretend all this sand is actually _part_ of the seal' would work. It wouldn't pull enough power over a small enough area for a chakra sensor to notice. Put out multiple sealed kunai as relay points or something to make sure everywhere is covered. Send the power to multiple storage seals as either electricity or chakra. Use it to power this village. Use it to _sell_ power to Suna and undercut whoever they're buying from now. Hell, bury one out in the snow and turn _that_ into the same thing!" Panting and more than a little irritated at his sensei, the blond turned on his heel and marched out of the office. ...Or would have, had the door knob not stuck. "Ah, damnit!" the boy groaned, smashing his head into the door frame and _poof!_ing out of existence.

"You did that on purpose," the tailor accused, a grin on his face.

Beside him, Jiraiya's smile was sly. "Sometimes, the brat thinks best when he's fighting. Doesn't matter if it's with his fists or with words, a fight's a fight for him. He gets it honestly—his mom and dad were both the same way."

Nodding, the retired ninja asked, after a moment of thought, "So, you think it'll work?"

"Oh yes," Jiraiya nodded. "It's goddamn brilliant, really. What the brat didn't consider is that it could be used to turn a large area into a very large jutsu array—a field full of rape to anyone we don't like. Come on, let's go find a Naruto and convince him to summon up a lizard. We're going to need a lot of that stuff. After that, let's go see what this place has to offer in the way of bars."

"Agreed. I can see why your predecessor supposedly drank all the time—the kid can drive you to it."

Jiraiya snorted. "You think this is bad? He used to be the village prankster. When he was still alive, he nearly drove Sarutobi-sensei up a wall—and that man had the patience of a saint." Unfortunately for Naruto, most of Snow/Spring would be aware of his early exploits come morning, thanks to the local drunks and gossips—rumor and gossip being the only things faster than light, or so it's been said.

* * *

It was dark when a slightly steaming, partially towel-clad Hinata made her way up the stairs of the inn they were staying at and back to her room. "Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked, poking her head into the room she shared with the blond. The boy in question looked up from where he'd sat at the table, hunched over what looked to be a pair of gloves. "What are you working on?"

"Huh? Oh, this?" he asked, picking one up and waving it at her. Getting a nod, he grinned. "Well, my chakra control is still crap—will be for a while. So, I'm making a crutch."

"A crutch?" she asked, stepping closer to examine the items in question. A closer look revealed the boy had turned a thin pair of fingered gloves inside out and was sewing seals into the palm, with trailing connections up the individual fingers.

"Mhmm. Ero-Sannin showed me how to write a few elemental jutsu for the kunai seals. We probably won't be using anything but fire, lightning, and wind but I had him show me one for earth and water too. Since it's written down, it's easy to see what part does what." Pointing towards a set of five strips of paper, he grinned and named each of them off by element.

Hinata frowned as she took in the written seals and what her favorite blond was actually sewing into his gloves. Parts of it, she recognized. Other parts, she could see were part of each elemental jutsu type. "You're not putting in the whole technique?"

"Nunuh," the blond grinned. "That's the best part. I did a sort-of dry run with written seals," here, he held up his hands, which despite being clean still had traces of ink on the palms and fingers. "They'll work with the whole seal for that jutsu, sure, but then it only does that jutsu. So... I just did everything up to the part of the array that shapes it—elemental manipulation and, in the case of water and earth, material gathering—then I do the shaping myself. And since I'm just going for 'throw fire that way' as opposed to 'make a huge fire dragon that runs all over the place' it's actually easier than it sounds."

"...I want a pair," the girl admitted, drawing a grin from the blond.

"Sure," he nodded. "I even got something like a fire rasengan working before it blew up in my face," he admitted. "Well, a clone's face." The boy shrugged. "Ero-Sannin nearly shit bricks." Hearing nothing from the girl, he turned his eyes back towards her. "Hinata-chan, you ok?"

"Just... fine, Naruto-kun," she smiled. _'And once again, Naruto-kun achieves the seemingly-impossible on a whim. I've seen it so many times before, but it never fails to surprise me.'_

"So, you think the others will want a set?" the boy asked.

After a moment of thought, Hinata hummed and asked, "Will they interfere with regular jutsu?"

Naruto shook his head. "Nah. They would, if it were just the elemental seals and activation seals, but I'm putting in another seal so they only work after I've done something first. Not sure what yet. Maybe touch a spot on them, but that'd be too obvious—as would blood-based activation. Maybe touch fingertips to certain parts of the palm in a certain order? It'd look like you're just making a fist or cracking your knuckles..." The boy shrugged. "So, what'd you come up for?"

"Oh!" Hinata blinked, suddenly reminded why she'd come up in the first place. "Bath time?"

"Ehh, I forgot," the blond grinned. "Sorry, I got busy. Be back in a few!" he promised, putting away his sewing kit and leaving the gloves where they lay for later. Gathering up a towel and a change of clothes, he headed downstairs for the men's side of the hot spring. After the usual lather, rinse, repeat ritual in the showers the blond settled into an isolated part of the spring, mostly out of view of the three other older patrons who had apparently decided to soak before bed. Yawning, he closed his eyes and found his mind turning back to when the group had their own private bath and didn't have to share with random strangers—most especially, with other men. Stares from females in the bath was fairly normal for the boy. From men? Not so much, and somewhat disturbing.

It was only a short time later that Naruto had nearly drifted off, almost nose-deep, when a disturbance from the other side of the bath drew his attention. "Oi! Nice legs," one of the men who'd been there before him shouted towards the door. Naruto tuned them out, at least until the water near him was disturbed. Cracking open an eye, he found a familiar face heading his way.

"Nice towel," the blond grinned as Haku settled nearby.

Answering the unspoken question, the ninja pointed chestward. "I dislike the scars."

"Ahh," Naruto nodded. Medical jutsu could do a lot—it could even hide scarring, to an extent, but they would never completely vanish. "No one's really going to care, you know?"

"I do," came the immediate response.

"Able to use chakra yet?" the boy asked, drawing a nod from his companion.

"A little. Not enough to make mirrors, unfortunately," the missing-nin's apprentice admitted. "And after a while, it starts to burn. Tsunade-sama says it may always do that, even if I regain most of what I've lost."

"Because it's not regeneration," the blond hummed, getting a nod. "Medical jutsu sucks sometimes, when you start hitting the limits."

Water sloshing nearby drew the pair's attention out of their discussion as one of the trio of older patrons made his way over. Naruto flinched as the man drew near, for two reasons—firstly, he absolutely reeked of sake, and secondly, he had come sans-towel. "So," he started, amazingly not slurring. "Me and my buddies got a bed. Bet. Got a bet," he corrected with a giggle at his own slip.

"I'll just bet," Naruto murmured, rolling his eyes and earning an amused chuckle from the ninja beside him.

"Shut your yap, brat."

"Oi, do you know who the hell I am?" Seeing the look of confusion on the man's face, Naruto asked, "You're from out of town, aren't you?" Getting a nod, he asked, "You go through the square today?" Another nod. "You saw the fountain, right? The big one, with the five ninja and the bridge builder?"

"What's your point?"

"Haven't got one."

Shrugging off the blond irritant, the drunkard returned his attention to the boy's brown-haired companion. "Anywho—me and the boy's got a bet goin'." Seeing the ninja raise an eyebrow in question and motion for him to get on with it, he grinned and asked, "Sure you're not a woman, sneaking in here to bathe with your boyfriend? Cause I can smell a woman. Even a little one. Even a little, flat-chested one actin' like a boy."

Eyes slowly dropping from where they'd met the drunkard's, Haku did a quick up-and-down to take in his form before asking, "Are you sure _you_aren't a woman?"

As the older man flushed in anger and embarrassment, his friends across the bath laughing hard enough to be heard on the women's side, Naruto grinned. "Friend, I think you should take a hint and go." Seeing he'd startled the drunk out of his anger momentarily, Naruto gestured around them. "Look around. I know you've been drinking and it's pretty hard to think, so I'll help. See the water around us—how it isn't steaming any more? Notice how it got colder the longer you stayed here and flapped your gums?"

Forgetting his anger momentarily, the drunkard nodded. "Now that you mention it... heater break?"

"Not likely," the blond shook his head, pointing back towards the man's friends where, less than a meter away, the water was still letting off steam.

"What's your point?" the older man asked, turning his attention back to the blond.

"I don't have one. My friend here does, though," Naruto grinned, even as the jagged tip of a length of ice rose from the water, coming to a stop roughly level with the older man's family jewels.

"Naruto-kun, I am not sure I can hit a target that small from this distance," Haku admitted, deadpan and loud enough to be heard clearly across the bath, inciting another round of laughter at the drunken traveler's expense.

"Cute. You win, little girl," the drunkard smirked, turning away. He had gotten mid-way into his second step before the water below his groin suddenly rose up to splash it and then froze solid.

As the older man's friends made their way over to help drag their comrade away, Naruto grinned. "This is why I hate public baths. And he totally deserved that."

"Agreed," the ninja beside him murmured, keeping an eye on the fleeing trio as they vacated the room.

Grin going just a little wider, Naruto pointed out, "It's a valid question though. Which one are you?"

Eyes rolled as the brunette answered, "I am a boy."

After a moment, Naruto chuckled and countered, "You're also a liar and a cross-dresser."

"True on both counts," Haku admitted with a small smile.

Seeing he wasn't going to get a definitive answer, Naruto rolled his eyes. "Well, I'm starting to get all pruny and you made the water cold, so I'm getting out."

"Alright," Haku agreed, that smile widening just a little.

Naruto blinked. "Turn around."

"Why should I?"

"Because you _might_be a girl," the boy accused. He was annoyed to see the ninja beside him shrug. "Damnit, fine," he grumbled, using his hands to cover himself as he shuffled towards the edge of the bath on his knees.

"Cheater," Haku accused.

"Damn right I am," the blond agreed, hopping out and making a dash for his towel. Tying it around his waist, the blond grinned and turned his attention back towards the bath, where the missing-nin's apprentice was just climbing out. "Ha!"

"Ha? Ha," the ninja in question countered, excess moisture collecting and solidifying into a senbon, which flew with deadly accuracy and pieced the blond's towel—undoing the knot and sending the whole thing to the floor, leaving the boy to scramble to decide whether to cover himself or grab the towel, and slip on the wet floor in the process.

Heaving a sigh from his position on the floor, Naruto glared up at the supremely amused-looking ninja above him. "I give up. You win." Grabbing his towel, he spared a glance at the distracted ninja and smirked, before sending a foot shooting out to snag the opposing ninja's own towel between a pair of toes and yank. "Ha! I... win?" the boy hesitated, taking in the blushing ninja before him.

"You win, Naruto-kun," Haku murmured, snagging the boy's towel out of his hands and retreating.

After a moment, Naruto shook off his stupor enough to call, "That's just not fair!" His only answer was a laugh from the retreating form at the door, with a suddenly decidedly feminine sway of the hips.

"Not enough for mirrors," Haku murmured, patting the towel down. "But enough for genjutsu."

Several minutes later, Hinata glanced up from the scroll she'd been reading as a red-faced Naruto made his way into their room and closed the door behind him, making sure to lock it to keep a certain irritating special-jonin out. As the lock on the sliding door clicked home, the seal penned onto the metal of the lock made contact with the matching part inside the door frame. Circuit complete, the seal armed itself and waited. The first person to touch the metal of the lock from the outside would be in for a nasty, two hundred and twenty volt surprise. "Are you alright, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked, eying her favorite blond with concern—she knew for a fact that he only ever blushed like that around... "Who was it?" she sighed.

"Haku. She cheated," the boy answered. Seeing Hinata's look of curiosity, he elaborated. "Pretty sure he used a genjutsu."

"To what effect?" the girl asked. Being one of only three of their number to know the ninja in question's true gender, she knew this was bound to be amusing.

"You know how only perverts will detail a doll _that_far?" he asked, getting a nod from the girl. "Yeah, well, she cheated. It was like a doll. Flat. Nothing there. At all."

"And yet, that's twice just now you've accused _him_of being a girl," Hinata pointed out. "Are you sure she isn't neuter?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "It was a good joke," the boy admitted. "And entirely worth it, since that one guy's going to have frostbite on his dick." He grinned at the girl's snort of laughter and sudden covering her face in embarrassment. Spotting a glass of water sitting on the table beside his gloves, he downed it before sliding into the bed beside the still-giggling girl. "Problem is, I can tell she's a girl the same way I know you're a girl. Or Shizune, or anyone else."

"Oh," Hinata murmured, "How so?"

The boy tapped his nose and grinned. "I can—" He trailed off and blinked, smacking his lips. "Mah tongth's numb..."

Sliding out of bed, Hinata made her way over to the empty glass of water on the table. Sniffing it carefully, she sighed and put it back. "Anko, _again_," she growled, sliding back into bed and noticing Naruto's eyes were losing focus. "So, should I tell Haku it's alright to join us in the bath now?"

Naruto grinned. "Nah," he started, then frowned. Carefully, he continued, "It'll drive Tenten nuts, not knowing."

"One of these days, one of them is going to corner you," Hinata warned. "And then you'll be either slapped silly or worse." Hearing a soft snore beside her ear, the former Hyuuga shook her head as her warning fell on deaf ears. "Anko, I _know_you're listening." There came a confirmation tap, from somewhere in the vicinity of the vent. "What will it take to convince you to stop poisoning Naruto-kun long enough for us to actually consummate things?" Hinata blinked at the answer. "I'm sorry, I must have misheard that. Come again?"

The door to the room quietly slid open as the kunoichi in question slipped inside, pausing only long enough to eye the blond boy's handiwork. "Nice seal work," she grinned, closing the door and taking a seat at the table. Eying the gloves, her grin grew. "Yeah, I thought so." Finally, she turned her attention to Hinata, who had sat up and had her favorite blond's head cradled in her lap. "You want to deal? Let's deal." So saying, she proceed to lay out her terms. Across from her, Hinata's eyes alternately widened, narrowed, and closed in irritation—eventually settling into a steady tick.

"You realize, of course, this means war?" the former Hyuuga pointed out calmly.

Anko nodded. "So, do we have a deal?"

"Go to hell!" the younger woman shouted, drawing a laugh from the special-jonin as the woman in question dodged out of the line of fire of a trio of shuriken.

"I'll take that as a 'no' then?" Anko smirked, slipping out the door and closing it behind herself.

As the dark-haired girl settled down, she glanced down at the blond below her before smirking. Grabbing his arm, she tapped one of the seals written there. A moment later, a somewhat confused-looking Naruto popped into existence, fully clothed, beside the bed. "Hi—" he started, only to be cut off by the girl raising a finger to her lips.

"Let's see her interfere from half the continent away," the girl murmured before gesturing between herself and the Naruto in her lap. "Summon us?"

The clothed blond blinked, then grinned as he caught on—quickly gathering the pair's things and throwing them onto the bed. A quick clone-and-disperse later, the bed, along with the original Naruto and Hinata, disappeared. Five minutes later, they reappeared, complete with their things. This time, Hinata's smile was ear-to-ear. The summoned clone quickly put everything back where he'd found it, then dispersed. On the bed, Hinata shimmied under the covers and curled up for a night of sleep. And in a formerly empty room of the Daimyo's home in the Land of Spring, an identical set of Naruto and Hinata had settled for the same. "Tomorrow is going to be a good day," the girl murmured as she drifted off.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Wow... I've been on sort-of vacation from this story, and writing in general, for a year now. Eh, I won't apologize—I've enjoyed it, for the most part, and I needed it to get some things straightened out. This chapter has driven me just a little mad in the making, and is the sum total of three previous attempts. Hopefully, you'll think it's worth it. As usual, I have nothing ready for the next chapter but a few loose ideas. I do, however, have some things I've been working on off and on in the interim that I may decide to post.


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